Along came a Spider

A couple of them actually!

We were riding back from the Beaver Pond and passing by the Butterfly Patch - that's when I saw the her. A huge Banana Spider (Nephila clavipes) or Golden silk Orb-weaver was perched in its web with a Black Swallowtail butterfly hanging just below. Well, the wings were hanging there, the thorax was missing!

After taking Mrs. Banana's picture, Sarah saw a bee in the leaves of a nearby weed. I wasn't until I had downloaded the photos that I realize what was going on. Great camouflage!

Green Lynx Spider - Peucetia viridans

Lightning Bugs

Mid summer nights of my youth were filled with the small glowing insects. I was always able to find an empty Mason jar in the smoke house. Poke holes into a lid with a nail, and there you have it: the perfect night light - for a few hours anyway. The fields to the west of the house and across the road would sparkle and glow with thousands of the bugs.

Just don't call them Fireflies in middle Tennessee. That would be like calling fizzy cola drinks; soda or pop instead of "a coke" or "a cold drink".

Lightning Bugs in south Georgia? We have very few to none! In fact, I have seen zero, nil, none this year.

But this weekend, I will have an opportunity to see another light show in the summer sky. Particles traveling as fast as 133,200 mph will be entering the Earth's atmosphere - causing as many as 90-100 streaks per hour. The peak times for the Perseid meteoroids this year are during the early morning to dawn hours. Maybe an afternoon nap is in order!

*Chuck Hunt's capture of a 2006 Perseid meteorid on Space.com

Bird and Butterfly

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