RHH's photos with the keyword: beetle

I have not been able to identify this beetle but perhaps someone can help. It was photographed near Grassi Lakes Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.

This is a Large Flathead Pine Heartwood Borer Beetle photographed in Colville National Forest in Washington while hiking there.

There were advantages being in Australia during the winter, but one of the disadvantage was the lack of wildflowers. This was one we saw in a number of different places, and Fizgig has identified it as Blue Porterweed, an invasive in many parts of Australia. The beetle is unidentified. The photo was taken in Dinden National Park in Queensland on the second day of our stay.

This is another photo of my wife's and I was not around when she took it, nor did she get a photo of its back. I do not know, therefore, if this is the native Nine-spotted Ladybug or one of the non-native species. In any case the photo stands on its own. The photo was taken on an August trip to the Spokane area. After crossing the mountains we followed the Columbia River down through Chelan County and made several stops looking for a rare native orchid. This was one of the natural areas in which we stopped and though we did not find the orchid we found plenty else to photograph. Note: Fizgig has identified this as the Seven-spotted Ladybug, Coccinella septempuncata, a European species introduced into this country by the government to deal with aphids, but it has now taken over in many areas from the native species.

We found these tiny beetles on some garden plants in eastern Washington. Sonja has identified them as the Utah Pentatomid, Cosmopepla uhleri, a true bug.

This picture was published in the Mexican conservation journal, Especies, Mar-Apr, 2010 as the title photo for an article on carnivorous plants. Photographed in the "little bog of horrors" were some clumps of Venus' Flytraps. This was one of the few traps we found open and with an insect in it. This plant, native to North and South Carolina, has folding leaves which are ordinarily open, but are triggered to close when an insect lands inside the trap. Having closed and trapped an insect the plant slowly digests the insect and then reopens. The website for the Botanical Society of America provides the following information: "The leaves of Venus' Flytrap open wide and on them are short, stiff hairs called trigger or sensitive hairs. When anything touches these hairs enough to bend them, the two lobes of the leaves snap shut trapping whatever is inside. The trap will shut in less than a second. The trap doesn't close all of the way at first. It is thought that it stays open for a few seconds in order to allow very small insects to escape because they wouldn't provide enough food. If the object isn't food, e.g., a stone, or a nut, the trap will reopen in about twelve hours and 'spit' it out. When the trap closes over food, the cilia, finger-like projections, keep larger insects inside.... In a few minutes the trap will shut tightly and form an air-tight seal in order to keep the digestive fluids inside and bacteria out. The exoskeleton of the insect can not be digested by the flytrap, so it remains when the leaf reopens. If an insect is too large it will stick out of the trap. This allows bacteria and molds on the insect to thrive. Eventually the trap turns black, rots and falls off. The trap constricts tightly around the insect and secretes digestive juices, much like those in your stomach. It dissolves the soft, inner parts of the insect, but not the tough, outer part called the exoskeleton. At the end of the digestive process, which takes from five to twelve days, the trap reabsorbs the digestive fluid and then reopens. The leftover parts of the insect, the exoskeleton, blow away in the wind or are washed away by rain. The time it takes for the trap to reopen depends on the size of the insect, temperature, the age of the trap, and the number of times it has gone through this process. The lobe manufactures digestive juices and an antiseptic juice. This keeps the insect from decaying over the few days it is in the trap and purifies prey that it captures.... People still do not understand fully how the trap closes. The Venus' Flytrap does not have a nervous system or any muscles or tendons. Scientists theorize that it moves from some type of fluid pressure activated by an actual electrical current that runs through each lobe."

I am weary of orchids and of posting pictures of orchids and yesterday's was the last for a while. I thought I'd post some pictures from our peregrinations last summer, both here in Washington and elsewhere. This is the first and was photographed in Turkey Run State Park in Indiana last summer. We camped there for a week with some of our children and grandchildren (more pictures to come), and this insect was photographed one morning when my wife and I were out for a walk. I had no idea what kind of insect this is and had no references that helped, though I assumed it was a beetle of some kind. It was quite small and quite difficult to photograph since it was moving all the time and the light was not very good. This was the best of my pictures, though I think my wife has several that are better. Thanks to zxgirl for the identification, which appear to be correct if you follow the link that she gave in her comment. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/11/turkey-run-...