Field Notes Update

Ebony Jewelwing /  by Todd Henson

A male ebony jewelwing damselfly

Sometimes you really have to work to get even a mediocre photograph of a subject. That happened with this one, an ebony jewelwing damselfly. We were hiking through the woods when we turned right onto one of the dirt roads that led back to the car. Not far along that section of wooded road I noticed this very dark damselfly, one I don’t recall seeing before. Every other damselfly I’d seen had mostly clear wings, but this one’s were black. And the body was a beautiful metallic blue. At the time I had no idea what specific species it was so I went about capturing some photographs hoping it was unique enough to allow easy identification later (it was).

This particular damselfly appeared a bit jumpy and I didn’t have a very long lens with me, just my 105mm macro lens. So I attempted to slowly approach it a number of times and almost each time it would fly off just as I got close enough to get a decent photo. But eventually we were able to work together. I moved slowly enough and perhaps it became used to my presence. So I have this single image to share of the ebony jewelwing perched atop a blade of grass.

This particular individual happens to be a male, which have the metallic blue body and all black wings. The female is more of a brown color and has white spots at the tips of the wings. Like all damselflies this one was a fast mover, quickly flying from one perch to another, very difficult to follow in flight with the camera. I have done that before with some larger dragonflies but it’s very much a challenge, and one I didn’t succeed at this time around.

The trail was somewhat dark and I had to handhold to follow the damselfly so I set my ISO high, to 1250. I had a reasonably open aperture, f/5, giving me a shutter speed of 1/2500 second. When it landed it tended to stay reasonably still, so I might have gotten away with a slower shutter speed and a lower ISO (for less noise) or smaller aperture (for more depth of field), but I didn’t want to risk it and didn’t have a lot of time to think through changing settings. There is some noise, but I think it works perfectly fine as a natural history sort of image to show you an example of this magnificent species.

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

Bright and Beautiful Berries /  by Todd Henson

A fresh red berry, believed to be a wineberry.

Back in July we started seeing wild berries ripening along the forest trails, and some of the red ones really stood out, being so bright and beautiful. At first glance we thought these were raspberries, but upon further research I believe they’re actually wineberries, an invasive species in the same genus as raspberries and blackberries that was introduced to North America as breeding stock for raspberries. And as so often happens, it spread very aggressively from then on.

A small cluster of berries, some still forming.

Berries are on their way!

The biggest factor that leads me to believe these are wineberries instead of raspberries is the color the the stems. Wineberry stems are covered in red hairs that give their stems a very reddish look. Raspberries lack these hairs so their stems aren’t so red.

Notice the red stems, leading to my belief these are wineberries.

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!

Broad-headed Sharpshooter (Oncometopia orbona) /  by Todd Henson

A broad-headed sharpshooter (Oncometopia orbona) resting on a leaf

Today we take a brief look at a very interesting looking insect, one that’s not uncommon but that many of us may not have seen before. This is a broad-headed sharpshooter (Oncometopia orbona), a type of sharpshooter and in the family of leafhoppers. As you may be able to tell from the names these insects are able to hop or shoot quickly away from a plant. They also typically feed on plants, essentially drinking liquid from them. Unfortunately, this particular species is also known to carry a bacterium that causes disease in grapevines in some regions.

This particular sharpshooter was photographed at the end of July, 2021, at Blandy Experimental Farm, the State Arboretum of Virginia, a fantastic location for lovers of plants and all the things you can find around plants. There were large fields of plants and that’s where I happened to notice the interesting coloration and patterns of this insect.

Cropped in to get you a little closer to the broad-headed sharpshooter

Look closely and you may notice an interesting feature of this specific insect. I believe this is a female broad-headed sharpshooter. How can I tell? The females can sometimes be seen with white milky or waxy patches on the sides of their wings. The patches are called brachysomes and contain proteins they’ll scrape onto their eggs to help protect them from drying out and from some predators. I think the small patches of white on the wings and the rear legs of this sharpshooter might be the remains of this substance, so she may have recently laid some eggs somewhere.

In the past I’ve shared photos of another sharpshooter, a Versute sharpshooter on the leaves of an hibiscus.

Have you seen one of these broad-headed sharpshooters before? And if so, where did you find it?

Do you enjoy these posts?

Sign up to receive periodic emails with updates and thoughts. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you. And please consider purchasing artwork or products from my online store, and using my affiliate links in the sidebar to the right when shopping online.

I appreciate your support!