Jaci Dawn

I love insects for the most part. And a healthy high desert stream has a lot of insect life.

Apart from the nasty mosquitoes (tiny buggers that leave fluid-filled welts), most of the insects we encountered were fairly benign creatures (to humans and dogs). Well, the western yellowjackets (Vespula pensylvanica) are probably not entirely benign to humans and dogs (especially Murphy) but they weren’t trying to attack anyone and Murphy didn’t annoy them enough to get stung. Harvey did, but he’s not allergic and he got over it rapidly.

The wasps were thirsty and came to the water’s edge time after time, delicately balancing on their six legs atop the water’s surface and floating like the water skippers.

Other insects (like the grasshopper infestation) tend to sink and drown, but the yellowjackets are like tiny rafts on rippling water. I assume they are somehow storing water that they take back to their nest to distribute to the wasp grubs, but I really have no idea. Any takers?

Lorquin’s Admiral is a very common butterfly of the high country.

This stink bug hitched a ride into Field’s Station with us. I looked it up and discovered it is a Say’s Stinkbug (chlorochroa sayi).

Whatever this caterpillar will be when it grows up, it likes cockleburs. It didn’t move much the entire few days we camped by the big rock. Colorful fellow but camoflaged by the pink rock and colorful lichens.

This tiny Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) liked the cockleburs, too. And yes, it really is called a “hairstreak” – if only the grey hairs on a human head could be so striking!

This little butterfly is hard to capture with a camera. Great Basin wood nymph (cercyonis sthenele).

While I was chasing the Great Basin wood nymph, I accidentally captured resting dragon flies. There are always dragon flies.

This one was an accidental capture as well. I turned the camera back where the wood nymph had just been a second ago and discovered a different butterfly hiding there. I’m fairly certain this is Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (nymphalis milberti).

My camera caught this one on the sagebrush way up the draw. I tried to get a better closeup so I could later identify it but this was the best I could do. i am pretty certain it is a Becker’s white (pontia beckerii).

This was not a very focused photo (thanks, Harvey) , but it was enough for me to deduce the butterfly is a Pine white (neophasia menapia).

I had a great time tracking down the insects (butterflies mostly). It really helps if you have a good field guide (I used Kaufman’s Field Guide for Butterflies) and the Internet (the bugguide.net). There were way more insects than I could photograph. A person would need to spend three seasons sitting with a notebook, a camera with a great macro and several field guides to really understand the insect culture of a high desert creek and ecosystem.

So – for my NEXT camera: Macro lens and huge Zoom lens. Oh yeah, Baby!

ttfn!!