Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning

I visited my favorite place this morning. There appeared to be nothing. Then out of the corner of my curious eye, I saw something wiggle. I looked and there was my long lost friend - Miagrammopes - just hangine from a leaf.

Then she started to wind in some silk as shown here. You can see a puff of silk held by her 2nd legs. She is using her first legs to pull the strand toward her - what I call tensioning

Her she is in her bent configuration - just holding the tension with her first legs

Here she is again - doing something

Then she races back to the leaves and works on attaching the strand - at least that is what I think she is done

She then moves out on the strand a bit

and starts winding it in again. You can see the tiny ball of tangled silk held by her 2nd legs

Another view

Her you can see the strand between her 1st legs and the ball of silk held by her 2nd legs

Here she is doing something. Her 2nd legs are holding the ball of silk while her 4th leg is bent all out of shape - obviously doing something quite important

Pleased with whatever she was doing, she inches her way back toward the leaf above

As she nears the leaf - she holds her 1st legs apart why?

Then she flips over and starts doing another something

Sort of a handoff between her 1st and 2nd legs

And here, it appears that she is holding the ball of silk with her palps

and whith one of her 1st legs - does something - maybe eating the silk ball?

Another view of whatever

More action

and more action - an interplay betwwen 1st and 2nd legs. You can see a small silk strand attached to one of her 2nd legs

Then she moves back to the leaf - and you can see a strand (untensioned) of silk held by her 4th legs

and here she is in her rest position - just a twig in the forest

Her shi is literally, hanging out

Her is the thread she is hanging from

She increases the tension and now she is in her launch position. You can see a small out of focus strand under her

And some pleasant flowers

Closer

A metallic long legged fly

Another view

A pair of sort-of wild orchids

A something growing near the ground

This was just plain interesting. Maybe it is a stalk of grass?

I like these very much

Tow mating maybe bees

A side view

The tension ball - the strand between her 2nd legs 9tension ball) and first legs - then a faint strand leading down to the left

White plant hopper - from the front

From the side

Maybe an assassin bug?

Morning skipper

A shite plant hopper

A white plant hopper

C. Frank Starmer

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