Flickr Lounge: photographer's choice

A lifer for me, a butterfly I've wanted to see ever since I first heard about them (the only carnivorous North American butterfly--its caterpillars eat woolly aphids). I got a distant shot and then went in for a close-up, which didn't give me good results . . . but then my subject came to me, landed on my right hand, and good-naturedly agreed to transfer to my left so I could get its photo.

It's much prettier in person than photos in the field guides had led me to expect. One of several "wows" in an incredible insect/spider day at Spring Mill State Park.

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Flickr Lounge: photographer's choice

I felt something small between my finger and my camera and looked and found this tiny fly. I persuaded it to move to my left hand and it posed for a few photos.

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Flickr Lounge: Photographer's Choice

This one settled down on my camera, the top of the lens, and I told her I couldn't photograph her there. She seemed completely untroubled by my looking at her and talking to her, so I put my left hand in front of her. When she didn't crawl on, I gently touched her back leg and she moved forward. It was more contact than I usually give an insect, but she needed to move off my lens whether or not she moved onto my finger, and so it seemed worth trying getting her onto my finger after she ignored my attempts to get her onto a plant. Isn't she beautiful?

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Anthrax georgicus. I'd forgotten how small this lovely little fly is. It landed on me repeatedly, usually only momentarily, but finally posed long enough to allow me to get its photo. My fingernail doesn't seem like the best place to lap up sweat, however!

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