Sunday, July 10, 2005

Beetle mania


This little fellow is one of a cast of hundreds that's eating some weeds near the house. He's kind of pretty, but I wish I'd had a camera with me when I saw a "Fiery Hunter", (also called Caterpillar Hunter) beetle in the woods the other day. It was the most beautiful bug I've ever seen. Brilliant green back, royal blue head edged in gold. It looked like a piece of jewelry... but I don't carry a camera on the mountain bike.

3 comments:

kenju said...

Rick, you need to find a way to carry a camera with you! I would have loved to see that beautiful bug. This one ain't half bad either.

Rick Lee said...

Well... I think what I needed in that instance was a jar. I doubt that I would have been able to capture the bug with the camera because he moved too fast. My friend the entomologist told me a trick... catch the bug in a jar and put it in the freezer. If you want to kill the bug (put it in a collection, etc) you can just leave it in there for a long time. However, if you just want a photo, you can leave it in the freezer till it goes to sleep then take it out and photograph it. When it warms up it will scurry away. I used this trick for a commercial photography job that required a photo of a bee sitting on a honey jar.

Rurality said...

Unfortunately this one is a Japanese beetle! Pretty maybe, but non-native and very destructive. Nice picture of it though. :)