a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

Cast the photo black and white, crank up the contrast, and pray for atmosphere:

Love Odonates! Especially love to get them flying, which is tough.

It was a big day for beetles, too:

Ground beetle? Tiger beetle? This seems an awkward angle:

This is genus Calosoma, ground beetles (Carabidae). Looking at this shell with and without flash was interesting — see where the color comes from?

What a gorgeous scarab beetle (June bug, Phyllophaga nebulosa?).

I turned over a rock, and saw a sowbug killer spider (Dysderidae); in fact, I’ve pretty much only seen these spiders when I look under rocks. Also some interesting unidentified ants.

And finally, plenty of very mysterious insect signs:Note that in this next photo, the twigs were only on top and did not pass through the leaf. Perhaps from the bagworm, Psychidae.A very shiny egg sac for somebody:This is the cocoon of a parasitic wasp. There is a shrivelled caterpillar somewhere in this mess that has been eaten away by the wasp larvae.