On the tile and concrete entrance sidewalk I photographed this beetle yesterday and sure it is one of the dozens of Scarab Beetles and pretty sure it is in the sub-category of Golden Scarab Beetles. I don’t have a beetle book and the internet is taking more time than I wanted to spend for the exact ID! 🙂
Yep! I just went 6 days without blogging which is not my usual habit which is to write posts 3 or 4 days ahead then break from the routine while posts keep coming out. No health problems or catastrophes, “just tired of blogging.” But with another trip coming tomorrow, I’m in the mood and here’s a few nature photos made during this “down time.”
Two Bee or Not Two Bee
I’m still not getting many butterflies in my garden yet other than the fast-moving Yellows that never seem to land for a photo. But here’s two bees in my garden this morning:
Last November I did a post on my first “Carton Wasp Nest” in my garden but there were no wasps anywhere around it. Again in December I saw another one in Uvita also with no wasps. The other day, there were a lot of wasps in and out and around my nest here! It is the first time I’ve seen wasps on one. I have no explanation as I know almost nothing about wasps. I just think the shape of this nest is pretty cool!
Carton Wasp Nest with Wasps, Atenas, Costa Rica
And how it looked last November with no wasps around . . .
I’m always amazed at the work of little spiders and really don’t try to photograph their work nearly enough! Early morning is the best time and seeing them at Maquenque on an early morning bird hike reminded me of early walks years ago in the Everglades National Park in the States with thousands of spider webs visible in early morning in those wetlands. Note that on the second or landscape photo below that the web looks like the spider wove a second web on top or an earlier one. Maybe common, but the first time I’ve noticed such.
If you take the time to look, I guess you can find a lot of interesting insects almost anywhere. 🙂 But this is another one I photographed at Maquenque a week ago that I’ve never seen before. Enjoy three photos of what I think is a type of beetle . . .
With 6,400 different species of Katydids worldwide, this one may not even have an “official” name yet. Another amateur photographer online called it “Flat-faced Katydid” which is certainly descriptive but I’m not going to give it a name until I find an official entomology name for it – but it is a cool bug that we saw on the “Farm Tour” at Maquenque Ecolodge & Reserve a week or so ago (time is blurring on me now). 🙂
Here are three different views of what I am pretty sure is one of the many Katydids . . .
This one is almost identical to one seen recently in my gardens with the ID coming from whatsthatbug.com which I hope is scientifically based. 🙂 It was photographed on the hotel property which is considered a rainforest. See what the other one looked like in my Carton Wasp Nest Gallery.
Injured or with a broken horn was on my terrace Christmas Eve in Uvita until the maid got rid of him. They usually have a long black horn as long as his head width. This one seems to have been broken off. See my Rhinoceros Beetle gallery for what the horn usually looks like. He was at first on his back and could not roll over (lots of beetles have this problem!) as seen in 3rd photo of gallery. I turned him over for topside photos, then he later climbed up the outside door as shown in second photo of gallery.
There are so many strange and interesting insects in Costa Rica and some scientists say that there are still many that have not been identified or named yet. I have better photos in my Rhinoceros Beetle Gallery or you might like seeing the similar Hercules Beetle Gallery or another similar Longhorned Borer Beetle Gallery or for my whole collection of More Insects CR (non-butterflies) with more than 80 species of unusual insects I’ve photographed in Costa Rica. I think that insects are incredibly interesting!
The last wildlife I saw and photographed as I left the hotel early morning with low light and clouds were a flock or family of these “Giant Grasshoppers,” which is what everyone calls them here, but I found no good website about them. I photographed one on one of my pre-move trips here, the Carvan.com tour, at the J.W. Marriott Resort in Guanacaste. See it. or for something really interesting, see my CR Grasshoppers Gallery for 13+ different species of Grasshoppers here! 🙂 Here’s three shots of the ones I saw this morning . . .