"What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked." -Aldo Leopold
These special butterflies, endangered or threatened across much of their small range, have their stronghold in the state of Missouri. These images were taken in St. Francis Co., MO.
That’s right, this special one visited my home garden one afternoon and allowed me to grab some shots. The mantidfly are categorized in the order Neuroptera along with the lacewings.
Probably obvious, this species is believed to mimic the paper wasps (Polistes) as a potential deterrent to predation. Without a close glance, it would be easy to mistake this species for a wasp with the potential to deliver a nasty sting.
As if their appearance wasn’t crazy enough, larvae of the Mantispinae, the subfamily this species belongs to, feed by paristizing spiders and their eggs!
-OZB
These images were taken during a trip with Ted MacRae and Chris Brown this past April at Tingler Prairie Conservation Area in Howell County, MO. The first shows an exceptionally colored spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) in peak bloom.
This beetle larvae was something I had read about for years. Ted found several oak twigs that the mother beetles prune to serve as safe nurseries for their developing offspring as they rest on the forest floor. Ted delicately opened up the gallery to expose its occupant so we could take some photos.
These Buprestid beetles were gorgeous as they foraged in the wood sorrel. Once in a while, they would stand still long enough to let us photograph them.
Finally, we found this black rat snake as it attempted to climb a tree near the trail. Maybe caught a whiff of something higher up?
-OZB
Recently, I’ve taken the plunge and given some serious efforts into focus stacking in macro photography. This method allows the photographer to increase the depth of field in a scene by combining multiple exposures, each focused on a separate plane of focus. Afterwards, the different exposures are combined using powerful processing software on the computer. This particular image was built from 27 photos all taken at an aperture of f/8.
I will definitely miss our yard full of native plants when we make our change in residence, including the passionflowers. Maybe I’ll get to harvest this year’s crop of fruit one more time to make my own juice.
Although I don’t share in these beliefs, I really can appreciate the connections and story that the Christian thinkers put upon the Passiflora when they were introduced to these new world plants. Here is the story they used to connect this interesting group to Christian symbolism.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 