It was a gloomy day here in Los Angeles so the bug finds in CSUN’s botanical gardens were scarce. Luckily, this Large Milkweed Bug decided to make up for the rest of his kind by posing for me. Check out his proboscis that he’s using to suck up the Milkweed juices. It’s so thick it looks more like a seventh leg!
This Gray Bird Grasshopper is quite pretty… I like that its legs look like they’re covered in fish scales on the sides. And check out the barbs on the back of its legs, I’m sure you’d get a nasty kick if you were a predator.
As many of you know, one of my favorite things to do is to stroll the botanical gardens at my school and take photos of the critters I find. Here is a Flower Fly, aka Hover Fly in the family Syrphidae, sopping up some nectar. Flower Flies are wasp/bee mimics that are very beneficial to your garden. Their larvae eat aphids and the adults pollinate your flowers!
I tried getting this girl to pose for a picture bug she was shy and ran up my arm. She tickled. I know Orb Weavers are harmless but still, she has fangs and I didn’t want her to try and use them on me.. she didn’t, she just wanted to get away from me.
Ha- typo- “but” not “bug”… but I’ll leave it since it’s cute.
