Damselfly

I've been fascinated with this creatures for a while. He is related to a dragonfly, kind of like cousins. In the real life he is very blue and also very fast. The size of a damselfly is about 25.4-31.75mm (1-1.25 inches). I don't have one of those fancy camera with telescopic lens so taking picture of bugs that only sits for a short time and doesn't let you come close is pretty tricky and can be frustrating. Then you add the kids element, they want to see what bug you find and sometimes they are not very quiet. I have to say though our bug leader is pretty good at sneaking up on bugs and being quiet, but we have to work on our bug assistant. He likes to come close to the bug and touch it.
If you see his "body" he has more blue than the previous one. There are many different species of this "blue" damselfly and one of the way the expert categorize them is by how much blue it has.

The picture above is taken by someone else and I just have to include it to show everybody how beautiful is this creature. Click on the photo to see more detail on the face. More info about damselfly: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/damselflies/damselflies.htm
http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4TH/KKHP/1INSECTS/damselflyfax.html

Follow the Rule

This is a wolf spider with her babies. I thought when we first discovered her she was a spotted spider, but after looking at the picture closely we realized that those were her babies. We followed the rule and left them alone.

Look who's hiding in our garden

Our overgrown dill plant and parsley where you can find some creatures making homes or maybe just visiting for a meal.
This is how we got started with our bug-hunting-mania. We found some caterpillars on the dill plant and raised them to be black swallowtail butterfly.
We find a lot of grasshoppers in the field during our bug walk but look who's visiting today. He is missing something, can you guess?
And this guy (Citrus Flatid Planthopper) is very small but jumps very quick. Daddy long legs, and he looks like a spider but he isn't.

And here he is again close up. Can you see those two tiny eyes. For more info: http://www.gardensafari.net/english/harvestmen.htm
http://www.wnrmag.com/stories/2000/jun00/daddy.htm And lastly I have no idea who he is and what he is doing, probably up to no good.

Find a Katydid

We almost missed him, look at his body, it really looks like a leaf. Katydids look much like a grasshopper, but are more closely related to crickets because of the way they make all that noise. Katydids and crickets rub one wing against the other while grasshoppers rub one leg against one wing.

Wheel Bug - Arilus Cristatus

We found this guy in our herb garden, on our overgrown dill plant. He looks fascinating, especially with the shinny golden back. He moves really slow and doesn't seemed to be bothered by us at all. Don't be fooled though, he is the largest of the assassin bugs family, the mature adult is about 25 to 30 mm long, with females being larger than males. Don't pick him up because he can deliver a painful bite, even to humans.

We found him first in the forest during our walk. It turns out that he is a nymph (junior) to the Wheel Bug.

For more information: http://bugguide.net/node/view/454