Eastern Amberwing In Garden

I was looking for bugs in the garden and noticed this female Eastern Amberwing on a Hydrangea.  It was a nice photo subject as it stayed in the general area giving me multiple opportunities to photograph it on multiple plants. All images were taken with a 300mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on a Canon 1D mkIV.Eastern _Amberwing_FM_300mm_v3_1_4X_f16_1DmkIV_43G0358Eastern _Amberwing_FM_300mm_v4_1_4X_f16_1DmkIV_43G0358Eastern_Amberwing_FM_300mm_v3_1_4X_1DmkIV_43G0379

Junk Bug On Zinnia

It is a lacewing larva or sometimes just called a “junk bug” because of the junk it carries around on its back. The tiny larvae come up with all sorts of creative disguises to confuse predators. Other larvae may use bits and pieces of leaves, dead insects or whatever debris is available. I have seen these in other gardens, but never tried to find out what they were.

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Praying Mantis On Cosmos Flower

When we got home we noticed this Praying Mantis on a Cosmos Flower in our front gardens. I shot a few with my cell phone, then went and got my camera to get better images. I used a 150mm macro on a Canon R. I tried a few versions but the featured image is a 4 shot panorama assembled in Photoshop.

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CloseUp Image of the Praying Mantis – 150mm

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Even Closer – 150mm @ f/11

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Praying Mantis Shot @ f/18 for more depth of field