SOME CREATURES FROM MY YARD & GARDEN

Sometimes I don't need to go very far in search for something interesting to focus my macro lens on.

Just a few steps around the trees that grow around my house, can be enough for a cool find.

These shots were taken on the cherry leaf, early in this spring.

It looks like a well camouflaged caterpillar at first glance ... but this is actually a very different type of larva ... with no legs or prolegs ... the first thing that came to my mind when I saw it first time is "A flat worm and caterpillar hybrid" ... this is the larva of a fly ... some hoverfly from the genus Epistrophe, although I can't tell you which one exactly ... maybe Epistrophe eligans, but I can't be completely sure with what I found out through my usual internet search.

These are predatory larvae that feed mainly on aphids.

This shot was taken even closer to the house. Here you can see a detail of the old wooden door that leads to a small, dark & claustrophobic space beneath the stairs, a repository of dusty stuff that I rarely need. The white Pieris rapae butterfly got caught on the sticky threads around the silky tunnel ... a home of the robust black spider that usually shows only the tops of his legs at the entrance of the mysterious hole.

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I rarely see this species out in the open ... and on one of those rare occasions ...

... these photographs were taken. This is the Segestria florentina, a pretty large species of Tube - dwelling spider.

In another occasion ... just a few weeks later ...

... I had the opportunity to photograph this situation ...

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... the Segestria florentina has caught one of the many pill - bugs that crawl around shady corners of my house & garden.

Here is a wider view of the scene ...

... and with this shot I'm definitely leaving this interesting spider ... ... to continue the guided tour around my place ...

... with a wasp.

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This is the Vespula vulgaris, and here is feeding on the dead, slightly desiccated slug ... on the shot taken on a very hot summer day, some months ago.

Here you can see a bunch of young nymphs of the Nezara viridula stink bug on the colorful surface of this year's tomato.

These photographs were also taken during the summer. Here the nymphs are accompanied by an ant.

Here is another, slightly larger nymph, posing on the paprika ... and on the following shot ...

... on the tomato again, you can see the adult shield bug.

This Chloromyia formosa soldier fly is resting on the leaf of the eggplant.

I found this small nymph of some bug that I wasn't able to identify, on the leaf of the cherry tree ...

... and also here, on the cherry tree ...

... this year in spring ... I saw this species for the first time.

This is the crab spider Pistius truncatus ...

... and it looks pretty cool.

This Dysauxes famula moth is resting on the facade of my house ... a rich variety of moths can be seen on this facade all through the spring, summer and autumn ... but this is a long story, and a long line of photographs - for another post ... this one ends here ... I go to search for Fungi Friday material now ... have a good day ... or night ... wherever on the planet you are - THE END.

As always in these posts on HIVE, the photographs are my work.