For those who missed the March 4 opening

I want to thank everyone who showed up for the Friday night opening of my photo show at Main Street Artists. I enjoyed many delightful conversations with people about the fascinating flowers and bugs that are found in and around Quincy. I also enjoyed the extent that some of the same themes were apparent in my photos and George Fluke's sculpture. I thought our shows made a great combination. The top photo here, the Oak Treehopper, might have been the star of the show as it is a beautiful and unusual-looking insect that hardly anyone had seen before. I saw it for the first time last year when Lara Eichenberger invited me to her place to investigate this odd insect growing on her oak trees. After taking some photos and doing a little internet research, I started seeing them on my own oak trees for the first time. They are in the insect order Hemiptera which entomologists call the "true" bugs. They're only about 1/3 of an inch long and they camouflage well along the twigs of the oak trees where they are often in the shade of the oak's leaves. Very intriguing and harmless little critters.
The remaining insects shown here as well as the photos in all of today's posts, are currently showing at Main Street Artists gallery in Quincy for the remainder of the month of March.
I am preparing a booklet of natural history notes on these photos that I hope will be available before the show ends. Watch this blog or visit the gallery for an announcement.