Texas, and the search for Texan critters

5 days and 2000 miles into our 2014 summer circuit, we have arrived in southern Texas! Despite the recent drought that has been going on here for the last few years, everything is currently surprisingly green, and there are still many spring wildflowers left. On my prayer walk this morning through the back forty of our campground, I counted over a dozen different types of flowers!

One of the things I have been looking forward to this year is the possibility of finding some large Texan insects down here. Yesterday, I came across a Red Bordered Plant Bug (in the true bug family) and a mottled brown jewel beetle perched on a flowering bull thistle.

I also spied a massive Tarantula Hawk wasp roaring around through the bushes, looking as ferocious as ever. I didn't have my net with, so I couldn't catch him this time, but I'll be on the look out for him again, as I need one for the collection, and I don't like what they do to tarantulas, even if it is all part of nature.

This morning, Ems and Ibs came running in with the news that there was a female katydid laying eggs on a nearby fence. I grabbed a handy cell phone (the big camera was in use), and we dashed back. Sure enough, there was a True Katydid (also called a bush cricket) clinging to the fence and using her ovipositor to inject eggs into a small crack.

True Katydid (Pterophylla camellifolia), laying eggs

I already have one of these in my collection, and since I didn't want to disturb this one, and since I try to collect no more than one or two of each species, we left her in peace after snapping a few pictures. 

Hopefully I will have more pictures of the insects I find soon. I'm still learning photography, so it's a work in progress!

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible...all things were created by him and for him." - Colossians 1:16

- Isaac