Continuing on from my last blog about the strikingly blue-colored dogbane beetles and ebony jewelwing damselflies, I’ll now focus on some other brightly colored insects – beetles and flies of metallic greens and reds.
The six-spotted tige
r beetle (Cicindela sexguttata) seems to have color variations ranging from bluish-green through a brilliant forest green.
Their coloring extends all over their bodies, including their legs and heads, interrupted by six white spots marking the back edges of their wings and by large white mandibles (jaw bones).
These fairly long-lived beetles (up to 5 years) look a bit fierce with those large jaws and they do bite, but they don’t go after people, unless perhaps you tried to handle them and they get pissed off. They are pretty quick runners and fliers, though. Their prey includes ants, spiders, caterpillars and other insects.
They have a beautiful cousin at the North Carolina beaches, the Southern white beach tiger beetle (Cicindela dorsalis media). Though not a shiny insect, they look as if they are made of ivory with an inlaid ebony pattern. Early September seems to be mating time for these insects; when I took this photo, there were many dozens of pairs going at it all over the beach. In some cases, the females were trying to shake off the males, who were hanging on rather desperately.
Some of the small flies (1-9 mm or 0.04-0.4 in) are green beauties. The long-legged fly (Condylostylus) comes in various hues.
These tiny fliers tend to have long legs and prominent eyes. Some have clear wings, while others have a pattern, such as this one with black on its wings.
There are some red long-legged flies, too. This type of fly eats other insects, including aphids.
Without a macro lens for my camera, it is a challenge to get good shots of the metallic-looking insects. But one day, I hope to get a more decent shot of this mottled tortoise beetle (Deloyala guttata) that looks like someone put gold leaf on its back!
Next blog – an example of my difficulties with “serious birding”!
My original interest in wildlife often centered around mammals; as a child, I was especially fascinated by the larger ones I saw at the zoo like lions, giraffes and bears. Eventually, in my later adult life, I became a birder and then 
The iridescent beetle, which measures less than a half inch and lives 6-8 weeks in summer, feeds on the dogbane as well as milkweed plants. The insects’ wings are blue-green in color and have a gorgeous shimmery shine that looks like metallic copper; depending on the light, the highlights can also look golden or crimson in color.
These damselflies are not strong fliers, often fluttering – even when resting on a leaf. Females will also rapidly open and close their wings if they are receptive to a courting male. If they reject the male, they will keep their wings open.
The male will raise his abdomen as part of his courting display.
The first week after they 
ee a record number of snakes (and Eastern box turtles). It began with a presentation at my camera club when a wildlife photographer brought in a pit viper for photo opportunities. I only had my old point-and-shoot camera with a no longer functioning flash so my photo was not so great; the poor snake’s cage was also surrounded by so many people flashing around it, I had no appetite for trying to get a better shot. I much prefer taking photos of animals in the wild (and sometimes a zoo).
Last year, I saw a few snakes, including at an Audubon Society presentation. In the wild, I came across this thin brown snake (Storeria dekayi) crossing a path at the Mason Farm Biological Reserve. It actually was kind of a pretty with the brown markings on its head. These snakes eat snails, earthworms and slugs, so you might find it useful if they are around your garden to cut down on the plant-eating slugs.
amoenus) in my garden. These smallish snakes (growing to about 15 inches max) are mostly active at night and use their small pointed heads to help root in the soil where they find insects and worms to eat.
eresting sighting lately has not been a rat snake itself but its skin! They are very good tree climbers and this one obviously decided to shed its skin while hanging on a high tree limb in a park along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains.
copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), the only venomous snake in this part of the state. They can be very beautiful and actually will not attack quickly. When threatened, they will often vibrate their tail and release a musky odor. If they feel they are in danger, however, they will bite – as my next-door neighbor unfortunately discovered when he put his arms around a tree to tie a ribbon on and disturbed an unseen snake on the other side of the tree. He had to go to the hospital and had a severely swollen arm, describing the bite and its after-effects as incredibly painful.
Knowing all this made me incredibly grateful that I encountered this snake on a cool early morning. Just before a nature walk, I needed to relieve myself badly and snuck off a path to do so before other hikers arrived. Perhaps distracted by the idea that someone might come upon me in an ungraceful position, I looked around quickly but obviously not thoroughly enough because as I half-squatted and looked down at my feet, I discovered my right foot was right next to this reptile. I backed away quietly but quickly and only later when I retrieved my camera from the car did I get a shot of this merciful snake.
When our volunteer group at Mason Farm recently began a task of preparing wood for a new boardwalk, we discovered another native snake was keeping us company – a red-bellied watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster). These somewhat short-tempered but beautiful reptiles consume a varied diet but mainly eat amphibians such as frogs, toads, and salamanders.
My beautiful world 