And gormandized the rest? Good chance.
Bill

These have replaced our local brown, generic stink bug. Good. Much easier to kill, less in numbers by a lot (not very scientific, but I didn't count), not as foul smelling, and a local Specid uses nymphs as parasitize food for the young. We came out ahead.
Bill

Regardless of lens used or tubes added, my usual sop is to shoot a mm ruler. My T2I has a 22mm sensor+ - so if I get that in the frame, I think that is true 1:1. Is this fact? Quite simple, I think. No math.
Bill

I was wondering, but I see you eat them.
A book, The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, by Sandor Elix Katz, has this and other foods not often eaten. Instructions and info on homemade saurcraut, kimchee, fermented beverages and more. Wild Fermentation is another book that furthers the subject. Ever make sourdough bread? Worth it just for the aroma.
I wonder how these would look if grown between two panes of glass.
Bill

One of these days, this phone, to the moon, Alice. Neurotic should have been necrotic.
Bill

I am not up to photographing anything at this hour. Well, maybe the sky, but it is cloudy.
I have been an active collector of wee beasties for sixty years or more. Ignorantly caused the death of many. Deliberately caused the death of thousands. If it crawled, creeped, slithered, swam, jumped. You get the point. So. Spring is here. Outdoors at last. Make the most of it. Bring em home alive is the best way to macro. How? The point of this ramble (besides tired and unable to sleep).
Containers. Chinese carry out. Condiment containers. Zip lock bags. Peanut butter jars and others. NO GLASS.
A box of rubber gloves. Not needed, but you will appreciate them. One hand at a time. Your preferred hand. Do not reuse. Too cheap. A shrimp net for aquatics. Today's subject. Netting and piling debris and dead plants from pond edges was my method. Some turtles are out of hibernation in February. Insects always active to an extent.
Rotting weeds raise water temp. Solar gain raises water temp. Shallows by nature are warmer. I put piles of debris at water's edge, spread it a bit, and look for movement. Leave it but re- spread as you collect more.
Throw it back when done. DO NOT put numerous specimens in one container. Condiment containers, a bit of water and a lid. Every specimen I collected yesterday, about twelve, was predacious. One big fat bug would have made it home.
All will go into an aquarium set up with local Flora and fauna, when photoed. Then survival of the fittest will take over. My bets on the Belastoma. When more clement weather sets in, narrow sandy to muddy stream banks hold many Carabididae beetles and others. Flooding with water washes them into view.
If a seine is staked across a stream, then you go upstream and wade back, kicking gravel as you go, Mayflies, stoneflies, fish flies, and beetles and bugs and critters to no end.
I do not know the value of this info to others. As I collect, I will publish if there is interest. Many arthropods have such a specialized life, they are rarely seen. A good example are the Waterscorpions. Nepidae. Ever seen one, anyone. Or a cockroach, Cryptocércus punctulàtus. You will almost never unless you look for them IN THE RIGHT HABITATS.

Typing on my cell phone. Arms not long enough to see clearly at my age.
The necrotic nature of true bug bites and a sting is different in a major way. ( my caveat, been wrong before). A sting injects a venom. Defense?
The bug injects the anticoagulants to allow it to eat. It just HAPPENS to be poisonous. Deionized water is poisonous. Effects of bee sting gone in two or three days. I got a Reduviid bite, a wheel bug, bite. Two weeks plus. Neurotic.
Bill

You and Gary (aka Sippy jug) are, in my opinion, and humble be damned, the two best here.
I give you the edge. The margin is about the amount of the DOF of a slice of one of your stacks. The difference is the ethereal ( needed a dictionary here,knew the word, spelling. Love that word. So rarely get to use it in a sentence) quality in your photographs. I cannot qualify why, like art, I know it when I see it. The true meaning evades me. NO DISCUSSION ON THE MEANING OF ART INTENDED, IMPLIED OR WANTED, TO ALL.LISTENING.
Thanks for listening. Bill

What in the world is a bushel of elm hard ons good for? Makes me think of when David came back from collecting the dowery for Saul's daughter, what's her name.
Bill

If I put all but the turtles in one container, in a week there would be a fat Bellistomatid.
Any arguments?. Bill

My Mom would not bat an eye when I came in after being in the swamp on a Saturday.
Leave the animals and muddy clothes on the porch and take a bath(in qoutes).
The good life.
Bill

Do you know Wye Mills or Tuckahoe?
Bill

Water is warming. Lots of activity. The turtles are common musk turtles, but yes they snap at a finger. Sharp beak. These about 20 mm.
Everything I caught today except Rana tadpoles is predacious. Cups free and useful. Chinese carry out trays for shallow aquariums , seed starting and terrariums.
Bill

A. virginiensis is found along the C and O canal in Montgomery county, Maryland and north across the state. I have put two of these in a jar. Shake and they coil and release the cyanide. Insects added to the jar WILL DIE. Even if not smelled, it is a nerve poison.
Bill

PS. Most millipedes do well on any mild greens that are at the edge of rot. Spinach is well taken. Bits of slimey mushrooms, too. Keep in a plastic box with leaf litter and bark. They breed readily.
Bill

First time I have found a Creeping Water Bug. Pelócoris femoràtus.
Next a Belastoma sp.
I think belted skimmer naiads.
And best. Two young Stenocorus odorata.
And a grass shrimp, a damselfly naiad, Rana tadpoles, a mudminnow, Umbra pygmaea and more. I need to sort. So, pictures. Not all macro.
It was a productive day on Eastern Shore. Tuckahoe Lake.
Bill

A first for me

(Download)

Belastoma sp.

(Download)

Dragonfly naiad. Belted Skimmer?

(Download)

I believe the smallest turtle in NA.

(Download)

The collection

(Download)