desert pollination

 

carpenter bees in the morning

honey bees in the afternoon

creosote bush doesn’t seem to care

 

the rock crawler’s lament

 

we live on bare cold rock at edge of mountain snows

we live on dying things dropped by howling wind

tell me again how this is considered living

 

cicada

 

fight for life

cicada struggling with a wasp

stands no chance

 

(by julia mlynarek)

 

death glow

 

i watched a spider

kill a firefly in the dark

as the light faded

 

exuvia

 

a ghost of the past

memories of younger days

still poised on a twig

 

distraction

 

we were on our way to a celebratory lab lunch on a hot day

but the girls saw ladybird larvae on a spiraea bush

so we stopped in the sun and watched them hunt

 

mating swarm

 

a cloud of females

dancing on a beam of light

waiting for the one

 

red admirals

 

a butterfly storm

fluttering north with the spring

silent migration

 

emergence

 

old snow melts away

insects beneath the surface

waiting to explode

 

snow fleas

 

millions of springtails

burst out from winters blanket

blue shadows on snow