Often the coolest pictures are the ones that you didn’t expect to capture, and today’s image was also one where I didn’t realize that I’d gotten anything at first. During the trip that led to yesterday’s ode to frogs I had an obvious goal of shooting amphibians, but I unexpectedly caught these awesome bugs as well.
(Side note: “Shoot” in this context means taking photos, rather than violence. I’ve seen it lead to some misunderstandings, though thankfully for me they have all stayed funny rather than awful. The best/ worst was seeing the look on someone’s face nearby in a too-crowded coffee shop while I told my photography mentor that I wished that I could only ever shoot animals, but that I was going to have to get used to shooting more people.)
There were frogs a-plenty, of course; several of them sat throughout the shallows, eyes just breaking the surface, watching me suspiciously. If you watched the video and wondered at the empty water in the first few frames, watch it again; there’s at least one frog looking back in each one, though I had to sort through just as many pictures of “suspicious looking” rocks and branches. While discarding those, this one almost went too.
I paused when I saw the bug right of center, seemingly caught between some twigs, and upon closer inspection I realized that it was even more interesting. That is a giant water bug (Lethocerus americanus), but it has company: It appears to be holding on to a water strider (Gerris remigis), while standing over them both is a brown water scorpion (Ranatra fusca). Silent and nearly invisible, this was a deadly serious battle occurring on that branch.
I find myself constantly fascinated by the incredible diversity of life in our beautiful world and this unexpectedly concise microcosm of predation was no exception. I can’t wait to see what else is out there.
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