This is the only picture showing everyone (except the photographer), and the flash didn't go off. Hence the silhouette nature of Michael and Beth (nearest the camera). Richard the birthday boy is at the far end, having just come in from the barbecue. We almost didn't need a fire to cook those hamburgers--it was that hot.	This is the only half-decent picture of Michael that I got Saturday--it was his going-away party as well as Richard's birthday party.
After the burgers, we were walking across the yard when someone spotted this cicada trying to emerge from its larval husk. The skin had split down the back, and we stopped to watch.	Unfortunately, little black ants attacked the cicada before it could get all the way out. Don't ask.
On a happier note, the pond area is full of beauty in one form or another. This Great Spreadwing, Archilestes grandis, perched on an iris stem with one pair of wings in sunlight and the other in shade.
Young leopard frogs bask in the lily pond, catching insects that land on the algal mats or lily pads.
A pair of diminuitive Desert Firetails, Telebasis salva, form a "wheel" during mating. The redder male holds the paler female by the head, and she curls her abdomen up to get sperm from his secondary genitalia. After this, the male continues to hold her by the head while they fly to a location where she can lay eggs (here, often on the algal mats or under the edge of lily pads.)
A female neon skimmer, glowing gold in the sun, prepares to dip her abdomen in the water and lay eggs.

Back to Archive