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Post by Village Idiot on Aug 31, 2014 21:00:52 GMT -5
Sometimes, as I wander around in the woods with my game camera in a quest of capturing something interesting like a coyote or badger, I forget that there's an amazing, and often violent world right beneath our feet. I had the grill out today and right below me was a largish spider. Some sort of insect, a longish thing with blue wings swept down on it, paralyzed it somehow, and started dragging it away. I went in to get my iPad, which is my only camera, and captured it lugging its prey across the gravel of our drive. Not a great picture by any means, but a reminder to me that if you want to see nature, there's a whole lot of it going on right next to us.  |
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Post by RickW on Aug 31, 2014 21:05:57 GMT -5
I wonder what that is? Some kind of wasp? Last year, I was sitting out back, when a yellowjacket wasp was buzzing around. I whacked it out of the air with one of those electric tennis racket bug zappers. Didn't kill it, it was curled up and twitching on the table. Before I could move or do anything, a bald faced hornet, (bigger, mostly black with some white,) swooped in, stung the yellow jacket, and picked it up and flew away. It's a violent little world out there.  |
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Post by jdd2 on Aug 31, 2014 21:44:59 GMT -5
Our classroom windows don't have screens, and these sometimes interrupt things:  |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2014 22:00:55 GMT -5
Todd your wasp is a female and she has paralyzed the spider. She has dug a nest in the ground somewhere nearby and will put the live spider in it. Then she will lay eggs on the spider and cover the nest. When her young hatch they will eat the paralyzed spider before leaving the nest.
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Post by coachdoc on Aug 31, 2014 22:20:19 GMT -5
Todd your wasp is a female and she has paralyzed the spider. She has dug a nest in the ground somewhere nearby and will put the live spider in it. Then she will lay eggs on the spider and cover the nest. When her young hatch they will eat the paralyzed spider before leaving the nest. Cute. |
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Post by drlj on Aug 31, 2014 22:24:58 GMT -5
I hate spiders, wasps, horse flies, yellow jackets, plaid pants and bow ties.
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Post by Chesapeake on Aug 31, 2014 22:29:55 GMT -5
It's wild, and alien as well. It's almost spooky to think about the bizarre looking critters that live, fight, and die all the time just under our noses.
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Post by epaul on Aug 31, 2014 23:01:46 GMT -5
Or inside of our noses.
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Sept 1, 2014 8:12:40 GMT -5
Jeeze JDD, what the hell is that thing and why are you holding it?
Mike
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Post by Lonnie on Sept 1, 2014 8:37:08 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2014 9:04:35 GMT -5
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Post by dradtke on Sept 1, 2014 10:26:52 GMT -5
Any relation to the Charlie Hoffman we all know? |
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Post by RickW on Sept 1, 2014 10:42:53 GMT -5
One of the things about diving around this area is that it's not the big things that are beautiful, though they can be cool. You go diving in places where there is current, as that what brings the nutrients, and all over the rock, so thick you can't see the rock itself, grows all kinds of wild, crazy and beautiful invertebrate life, And crawling around through it all, fighting, eating, reproducing, is all kinds of the most amazing little critters. It's funny, most divers always seem to be in a hurry. They like to explore, go deeper, go farther, and then eventually get bored and stop diving. But if you go near the bottom, and go slowly, you see the best stuff. Sea slugs, or nudibranchs, are my favourite:   |
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Post by Lonnie on Sept 1, 2014 10:51:03 GMT -5
Any relation to the Charlie Hoffman we all know? Different Hofmann. His son, Larry, is now the owner of Hofmann Farm, he's also a wonderful bass player and dear friend. He's the driving force behind the website and DVD. |
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Post by Cornflake on Sept 1, 2014 13:43:29 GMT -5
This reminds me of the first time I was on the open ocean, on a boat out of Montauk. I suddenly had this realization that between me and Europe was a world where everything was eating everything else. No rules. No walls. Just appetites. It was jarring to the romantic view of the world I had at the time.
It also reminds me of deer hunting one afternoon, ten years back. I was sitting on a hillside watching for deer in a wash below me. I realized there was a tarantula a couple of feet away from my leg. Once that would have freaked me out, but I just watched him until he moved off.
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Post by Marshall on Sept 1, 2014 14:00:01 GMT -5
Sometimes, as I wander around in the woods with my game camera in a quest of capturing something interesting like a coyote or badger, I forget that there's an amazing, and often violent world right beneath our feet. I had the grill out today and right below me was a largish spider. Some sort of insect, a longish thing with blue wings swept down on it, paralyzed it somehow, and started dragging it away. I went in to get my iPad, which is my only camera, and captured it lugging its prey across the gravel of our drive. . . . , Right before you stepped on it. **Smoosh** |
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Post by RickW on Sept 1, 2014 15:25:26 GMT -5
This reminds me of the first time I was on the open ocean, on a boat out of Montauk. I suddenly had this realization that between me and Europe was a world where everything was eating everything else. No rules. No walls. Just appetites. It was jarring to the romantic view of the world I had at the time. A friend of ours who also dives, and is a naturalist, says, "Enter the ocean, enter the food chain." It's a humbling thought. |
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Post by Village Idiot on Sept 1, 2014 15:49:24 GMT -5
My Dad used to say when I was a kid, "civilization stops right here" while pointing at the shore line.
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Post by Marshall on Sept 1, 2014 20:16:25 GMT -5
. . . , No rules. No walls. Just appetites.. . . , |
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Post by Lonnie on Sept 2, 2014 8:43:32 GMT -5
. . . , No rules. No walls. Just appetites.. . . , “...on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
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