Category Archives: Prairie Insects

Photo of the Week – February 27, 2015

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Here are two photos that are completely unrelated to each other.

Why?  Because I feel like it.

So there.

An old truck in a snowy prairie. Leadership Center Prairie - Aurora, Nebraska.

An old truck in a snowy prairie. Leadership Center Prairie – Aurora, Nebraska.  February 2015.

Long-horned bee (Melissodes sp) on stiff sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus). The Nature Conservancy's Platte River Prairies.

Long-horned bee (Melissodes sp) on stiff sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus). The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies.  August, 2014.

Ok, I guess both photos were taken in a Nebraska prairie.  That’s makes them kind of related, right?

5 points to anyone who can come up with other good (or at least funny) suggestions of relationships between the two images.

Have a good weekend.

Photo of the Week – January 29, 2015

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Ok, I admit it – I’m a sucker for crab spiders.

A crab spider on Flodman's thistle (Cirsium flodmanii) at the Helzer family prairie.

A crab spider on Flodman’s thistle (Cirsium flodmanii) at the Helzer family prairie.  July 2014.

As much as I enjoy looking at prairie flowers, I enjoy them even more when there’s a crab spider lying in wait among their petals.  I must have more than a hundred photos of crab spiders on flowers, but when the lighting is good and I see those long hairy legs and cute little face… I just can’t help myself!

Do you suppose I need some kind of intervention?

“Hi, my name is Chris Helzer and I really like crab spiders.”  (Hi Chris…)

“It’s been three weeks since I last photographed a crab spider…”  (Applause)