insects – Carpathian Adventure

Grasshopper

It was fascinating just watching the little wing things on this grasshopper’s back moving in and out and making crick-crick sounds.

I haven’t seen one of these for a while. This European Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) was under the plastic sheet covering a pile of gravel I have in the garden. Freaky, alien creatures…. Years back, in Portugal, I kept one as a pet and the only thing it wouldn’t eat was a Cicada – butContinue reading “Praying Mantis”

Sabre Wasp

This Sabre wasp (Rhyssa persuasoria) was buzzing around our plot of land up in the mountains near the Polish border. It has one scarily long tail used for stinging larvae embedded in logs and trees, then laying an egg in them.

Cockchafer

As a little boy I feared the noisy Maybug Now i admire them

Ballad of the Rose Chafer

Jade beetle brought down to Earth Winged emerald Late Spring frost caused your demise A dead and dismembered Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata). A beautiful and noisy flying beetle which haunts the summer garden and forces you to duck as it flies past.

Autumn grasshopper

As leaves start to fall Grasshopper awaits his end No more summer sound

Bugs on a flower

Wherever I move out here I encounter life, whether big or small. The ground and air are alive. It amazes me the sheer diversity of life forms which surround me. Slovakia has the most species of butterflies in Europe, and I can’t imagine how many insect species they have.

Giant ant hill

The bane of bushcraft in my local forest – giant ant hills teeming with millions of large wood ants. Each time I kneel to photograph fungi or some other photogenic flora and fauna, massive ants crawl over my legs. You’d be amazed at where they can bite… and they bite hard. A hammock would beContinue reading “Giant ant hill”

Ladybird and ants on thistle

Ladybird (ladybug) and ants on a thistle beside an abandoned road. Eastern Slovakia.