More pictures from my visit to Phoenix, AZ last spring. I very much wanted to photograph dragonflies, as that is a chosen priority. The ones that I had seen so far were not interested in being photographed, so I decided to create more favorable odds. Any visitor to Phoenix would soon become aware of the Desert Botanical Garden in the city. I had visited this many years earlier, and I remember that it featured some ponds. The park of course had a highly diverse array of immaculately tended desert plants in full flower. Butterflies would be present, and maybe – just maybe -- a tarantula hawk would stop by for a feeding on those flowers. So I paid my admission and braved the crowds. Navigation past families and baby strollers was part of the game, but it turned out to be a terrific day!
I first made my way to the closest exhibits which featured many kinds of flowers. Among them were numerous queen butterflies ([i]Danaus gilippus). These are of course close relatives of the monarch butterfly.
Queen butterflies by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Queen butterfly by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Queen butterfly by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
In the next pictures I show a buckeye butterfly (
Junonia coenia), and a white peacock butterfly (
Anartia jatrophae). This was a good start!
Buckeye butterfly by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
White peacock butterfly by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
After wandering around among the flowers, I decided it was time to find the trails that would lead to the ponds. On my way I stopped to check directions with an attendant who was there to answer questions. She was a nice older lady, clearly one of the many retirees in Phoenix, and we got to talking about my wonky looking camera equipment and what the heck was it for. Once she understood that I was interested in all insects, not just dragonflies, she said “Oh, there was a large black bee over here a while ago”, and she pointed to a bunch of desert milkweed plants nearby. The “bee” on the flowers turned out to be an enormous tarantula hawk. Oh, my...
Tarantula hawk by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Tarantula hawks are our largest wasp, and they are famous for preying on tarantulas; paralyzing them with a sting and feeding them to their larvae. Their sting is regarded as among the most painful, as is graphically demonstrated here by the crazy Coyote Peterson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnExgQ81fhU. What kind of health benefits does this guy get?
There are different species of these wasps, and I think this one is
Pepsis thisbe. As you can see, she was extraordinarily beautiful but also very cooperative as she systematically explored every flower. So with heart pounding from great excitement, I continued to take picture after picture, hoping that my flash batteries would not fail.
Tarantula hawk by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Tarantula hawk by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Eventually, she and I were both ready to move on. By then we had a sizable crowd of on-lookers, so I told the people that when she flew off that they should just calmly stand still. Moments later she buzzed loudly away, and that was that. It was time to find those ponds!
There were many dragonflies that I very much wished to see. Among them would be the enormous giant darner (
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/67732-Anax-walsinghami), and the strikingly unusual filigree skimmer (
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/111055-Pseudoleon-superbus). But timing is everything and those species would not be flying at this time. But I had hopes to see the appropriately named flame skimmer dragonfly (
Libellula saturata), and as you can see in the final pictures I certainly found them! Like most skimmers, they proved pretty easy to photograph.
Flame skimmer dragonfly by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Flame skimmer dragonfly by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Flame skimmer dragonfly by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
It was then getting late. Tired but very satisfied with this effort, I headed back to the hotel to prepare for the final full day.