Tales of the Heliosphere

While some of us spent Sunday morning relaxing in the yard, at the insect level it was just another day of working to survive. Here's a pollen-laden bee hovering among the branches of a San Diego Sunflower. This fierce-looking spider sits on another San Diego Sunflower bush nearby. Click the photo for a closeup of the spider's face. Its fu manchu mustache-like markings alone are worth the look.
I have no idea what this flying insect is or the flower it's resting on but they're both strikingly beautiful. The flower's beauty is obvious to the naked eye. The insect is so small that to the naked eye it appears to be nothing much. Only under magnification is its beauty revealed to the human eye. Do other insects notice? Who can say? As far as we know, the aesthetics of a thing is appreciated only by human beings. These creatures live lives of unobserved grace and beauty.

To see more, go to my photos page at picasaweb.google.com/tdavera/InTheMacroverse and scroll to the end for the most recent additions. (Here.)

-tdr

Update: The flower in the bottom photo is a Tidy Tips and the insect is a hover fly.

Labels: Insects, Macrophotos, Nature, Photography