Death in the Lettuce - Green Lynx Redux

Wild lettuce, mightiest of the forest giants! Towering above an understory of smaller weeds; flowers spent, almost completely gone to seed. Desiccated remnants of once radiant blossoms, swaying gently in a warm late-summer breeze, broadcasting next year's crop in the sunny spots at the feet of their brooding bark-bound brothers. A wily wasp surveys the terrain, seeking beetles or larvae to nourish its brood,...What!?   Has the Watcher  left the kudzu!?

Aerial ambush artist, green flanks emblazoned with the rosy red chevrons of a decorated arboreal assassin. This, too, is the she-lynx's domain.



Never let down your guard. In the wild and woolly world of the weeds, every leaf might be a mantis, every limb a lynx. Desperate places, where survival is the name of the game, and the next hand is already being dealt...

Ante up!

American Classic - An Ode to Argiope Aurantia

Few wild creatures are as ubiquitous in late summer as the arachnid known as "writing spider", "garden spider", "sewing machine spider" or by other equally apt names such as "giant black and yellow spider".

Blog posts proliferate in late summer with images of this noble creature. Often slinging its silken hammock close to a window or door or in the shrubs out front, it is frequently encountered in a sunny but sheltered spot near human habitations. She's probably been hanging around since the spring, but is only now growing large enough to be noticed.


 

Hours spent in silent stillness, hiding in plain sight, this large orb weaver quickly enshrouds her hapless prey in a silken cocoon.  

She recycles much of the central web each night, strengthening it and perhaps scrawling a new message   in the center just for you. Cool facts abound regarding this amazing creature; she packs a lot into her year on the stage, then leaves an egg sac or two with a few thousand offspring in hopes that one or two might survive to carry on the tradition. 

Wonder what happened to her mate...?