Spiders and Bees and Dragonflies... Oh! My! June 29, 2024

 The artichokes are in bloom and the pollinators are crazy for them.  It's funny how they disappear down inside the anemone-ish flower thingies.  I don't know what they are called.  I looked it up and find them called "florets," or "spiky needle-like bracts..." but neither of those work for me.  They may look spiky, but they are soft.  

This one still have the center to open up.

Even the dreaded cucumber beetle pollinates (at the bottom).

The bee above is a leafcutter bee. See how it carries pollen on the hairs of their abdomens (called "pollen brush"), unlike honeybees with pollen sacs on their legs?  Leafcutter bees like my forsythia.

Notice the earwig head down in this artichoke?  

It's often hard to get photos of dragonflies, they see you coming.  I was able to sneak up on this Common Whitetail dragonfly.

I was surprised to walk a few yards away and find another dragonfly that held still!  This is a female Western Pondhawk dragonfly.  The males are blue. 

I don't mind spiders.  I put them out if they are in the house.  Usually those are just the cellar spiders that hang around in corners (these are not "daddy longlegs," which are also arachnids, but not spiders).  I do kill black widows I find in the garden, since they could bite me or Mickey.  

So, I was going out my back door (off my bedroom) and a spider was dangling on silk from the eaves, right at eye level.  I took the silk and moved the spider into the nearby flower pot.  I wish I'd moved it further from my door, turned out it was the biggest spider I'd ever seen (outside pet tarantulas)!

It was a Bold Jumping (or White-spotted) spider.  You can't see it well as it is soil colored.  

It got tired of me fussing over it and bared its iridescent green mouth at me!  (Sorry for the dog hair, it was the same with Boo as it is with Mickey)  Better photos of the green is here... https://lisasgardenadventureinoregon.blogspot.com/2019/05/something-truely-fascinating-or-true.html

The reason it was hanging by a silk thread is that it missed a jump at prey.  They make a "safety line" in case they miss.  To leap at prey they raise the blood pressure in their back legs to propel themselves.  

Lastly, a honeybee on Drumstick allium.  Honeybees are not native to the U.S., and are not the most effective pollinators.  Native bees outperform them.  However, honeybees are used commercially since their hives can be moved from orchard to orchard.