insect Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Craig Rogers Photography

Convolvulus Hawk-Moth

10th October 201810th October 2018Craig Rogers

Well after sunset and nearing the end of twilight I noticed some large flying objects moving around in a dimly lit area of the garden. After investigation I realised these were huge moths and feeding like Hummingbird moths but much, much larger.

I grabbed my Nikon D810 (which as usual, was fitted with my 80-400mm) as it has a pop-up flash, focused (eventually as it was very dark) on a flower and waited in hope it would visit it. This is much easier than trying to chase it around a dark garden. I didn’t wait too long until it hovered nearby and extended its huge proboscis to feed on the flower I had focused on.

I snapped the image below before going to identify it (more information below)

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The Brown Recluse Spider (AKA the Violin Spider)

24th July 201825th July 2018Craig Rogers

With my Tarantula Wolf Spider and Wasp Spider posts it seems that its all about Spiders at the moment, this isn’t intentional at all.

Today I was clearing out a space in our loft to make a new area for my new professional photo printer (more on this in the coming weeks) and I found a spider hiding. I knew immediately that it was a Brown Recluse. This is the only Spider in Portugal that can be an issue for humans even the European Black Widow or False Widow are not too bad.. It’s not a large spider and looks very harmless, however, it’s bite which is not always felt can develop into complications.

Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi)

20th July 201820th July 2018Craig Rogers

After photographing the local Tarantula a few days ago (This Post), I remembered that a couple of weeks back I took a photo of a Wasp Spider (also known as the Garden Spider).

Here you go (more info follows)!

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Tarantula Wolf Spider Served Breakfast (inc. Video)

18th July 201818th July 2018Craig Rogers

After discovering the Tarantula Wolf Spider burrow a few days ago (see blog posts), I decided to set up two cameras, one for a photography and another for video. I then dropped a Mealworm near the burrow that she gladly came out for a breakfast treat!

Due to the size, I think this is a female as they are considerable larger than the males. The female’s body grows to about 3cm whereas the male is only around 2cm. Also, the females live their entire lives in their burrows and the smaller males go off in search of females. In the winter they hibernate in the burrows. As you will notice in the video below, the burrow opening is almost 5cm wide which helps visualise the size of her.

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Glow-worm in the garden (Video)

17th July 201818th July 2018Craig Rogers

The European Glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca) is fairly common here in the hills, we see many of the males as they are sometimes attracted by artificial lights. Tonight, a female was proudly displaying her lights to attract a male.

The European Glow-worm is a species of Firefly which are actually Beetles. Only the males take the form of beetles and have the ability to fly, the females remain in almost larvae form. Using bioluminescence, they sit still with their light glowing pointing upwards to attract the male. The brighter the light the more chance of a male selecting her.

Armed with just my mobile phone, here is a photo of her, I returned her to her spot and she lit back up again.

A Better View Of Our Resident Tarantula

17th July 201817th July 2018Craig Rogers

This morning I walked past the Tarantula nest and it came out to say “Bom Dia”. I will be setting up a rig to get a much better shot, but here is one I snapped on my mobile.

See Yesterday’s Post for more details of the Lycosa tarantula.