Pic(k) of the Week: May dragonfly

A dragonfly, at rest, momentarily, in late morning.

Postal Pond: Decatur, Georgia, USA. 27 May 2023.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Butterfly & zinnia

In a summer garden, an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly pollinates a zinnia flower.

DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 11 August 2022.

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Pic(k) of the Week: (Almost) Halloween Guest

A spider —and her meals— at dusk. She may have been a week premature for a Halloween visit, but who's checking?

24 October 2021.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Mantis preying for autumn

Preying,

She hunts.

Prematurely autumnal.

As seen alongside the East Decatur Greenway in the city of Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 22 August 2021. (Autumn does not officially begin for another month, on 22 September.)

The species praying mantis (Mantodea), like the cockroach, has existed since the Cretaceous period, 145 million years ago. It probably will continue thus for hundreds of millions more. Unlike us.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Hornswoggling hornworm

A tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata) munches on a tomato plant, in a garden, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 5 September 2020.

The tomato hornworm is a green caterpillar that is the larva (reaching a length of up to 4 inches) of the hawk moth. Found across North America and Australia, it commonly feeds on tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and potatoes. It gets its name from a dark projection on its posterior end and its use of tomatoes as host plants.
— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Butterfly & Sputnik

With a 20-millimeter focal length, the lens wasn't quite right to catch a closeup. But with its minimum focus distance of eight inches (and a bit of post-cropping) and with a moment of near-cooperation from the aeronaut: voila!

A butterfly pollinates a 'Sputnik' flower in Shadyside Park —one of six connected Frederick Olmsted-designed parks of the Olmsted Linear Park— in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, on 6 July 2018.

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