Beauty or the Beast?

C'mon, you must know me well enough by now to know that I have to go with Beast today!

This fine specimen is a Jagged Ambush Bug (Genus Phymata) in the True Bug family.  As his name suggests, he waits patiently for prey to approach and then uses his mantis-like forelegs to grab the unfortunate meal.  Without going into too much gory detail, he uses a highly toxic substance that basically turns the prey into a arthropod-smoothie.  Yum!  I have only ever seen one of these interesting creatures in my garden once... until the past month.  For whatever reason, there are loads of them in my new pollinator garden.  It's very easy to miss them as they blend in amazingly well.  

Technical details:  I used my 105 macro with a short extension tube on a tripod to get in nice and close.  I took 7 shots with different focal points and stacked them in Photoshop to bring the Ambush bug into side-to-side focus. I'm fairly happy with this, although I might have benefited from more shots to stack.  Learning...

Now, for those of you who are still reading along (thank you!), if you'd like to see the "beauty" shot, I've posted it HERE on Flickr (don't look if you don't like butterflies.)  I'm very happy with this shot as I think the colors really work well.  

My nephew, his wife and their 2 1/2 hear old son (our grand-nephew) are coming for a visit tomorrow and I can't wait!  We'll get MIL over here so that she can enjoy time with her grandson and great-grandson.  Should be a great day, lots of memories.  I am guessing that I'll not be blipping nature tomorrow...I kind of can't resist that little boy.

Friday the 13th.  Generally speaking, I like the number 13.  My parents, my bestie Peg and one of my Hubs' racing partners all got married on the 13th of June, so I consider it a lucky day.  Can't think of any reason not to like October 13 just as well.

Thanks, as always, to BikerBear for hosting FlowerFriday.  And in acknowlegement of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, please follow this link and click on the pink button for free mammograms for those who can't otherwise afford them.  It just takes a second and you could save someone' life.

xo
Debbi