Buckeye Butterfly Perched On Unknown Yellow Flower

I do love Buckeye butterflies (Junonia coenia), their big eyes or eyespots on the fore- and hindwings. With the pigmented spots they are actually able to scare off predators. It is believed that the spots developed through evolution to give them a functioning defense mechanism. A Swedish study claims that the spots not only keep birds away but that also chickens are intimidated by the frightening eyes.

We have one or two roaming around our "ranch" so I will share more of these beauties as I shoot them. Last October I posted a picture of one sitting on top of a false thistle in my blog "Buckeye Riding On Top of Leavenworth's Eryngo" and even mentioned that the US Postal Service had a stamp honoring the Buckeyes.

Widow Skimmer Waiting For Prey

Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa) belongs to the group of dragonflies known as king skimmers. The nymphs live in the water, molting and growing until they are ready to emerge from the water and then molting a final time to reveal their wings. Even though we don't have standing water on our property, the little marsh obviously was wet enough to give us a Widow Skimmer.

This is still a male youngster - adults have a steely blue body area, but juveniles are yellow with brown stripes.
I hope to see many more, as they normally prey on mosquitoes.

Resting - Easily Scared Variegated Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) taking a rest. Closely related to the Speyeria Fritillaries, there are still some differences, as having 2–3 broods per year vs. one for the Speyeria, they are also nomadic vs. sedentary and use several host plants instead of just one. Because of their use of passionflowers there are also taxonomic links to the tropic heliconiians Euptoieta (Greek for easily scared) describes that they are really diffcult to approach, even when resting or taken nectar in.

What Are You Looking At?

Differential Grasshopper (melanoplus differentialis), outside of the US also known as American Grasshopper. In swarms deadly to new crops and therefore considered a pest to agriculture.

This female subject (you can see the ovipositor) can grow upto 5cm (2inches) and can lay up to six egg masses in soft soil, each of which can contain 40–200 eggs . The nymphs will hatch early the next summer and will reach adulthood in 32 days.

They are not uncommon even in urban areas, where you may find them on a vacant lot. But normally they prefer grasslands, corn, fruits, forbs and sunflowers.

Sources: http://www.insectidentification.org, wikipedia,
This shot is also featured in my ClickASnap portfolio, and as a blog in the photography sphere on Niume.

Keepin' Balance

Not sure what kinda Dragonfly this is - but hoping that one of the readers may actually be able to help me out here. I tried to find out, but simply googling blue eyes and black/yellow body did not bring any closer information where this Odonata needs to be placed.
Maybe some extra info may help - shot in July of last year (2015), outside of Austin, Texas.

This was originally published in the Photography Sphere of Niume account on September 15th, 2016 - I really love who big the pictures show there.