Tom Astle

@tjalamont

Writer & nature photographer, especially macro photography of arthropods. Board member, Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee (conservation nonprofit). Fan of California, Montana, the rest of the planet. Photo website:

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Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jul 12

Brb, gonna spend the week with a bunch of arachnids 🕷️🦂

A macro photo looking into the face of a brown widow spider, hanging upside down on a dark gray surface. The spider's orange hourglass-shaped marking is visible on the underside of her abdomen.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jul 6

Here's the taped-together setup. I think I will have some fun experimenting.

A photo of a hand holding a Nikon Z camera, looking into the lens. The lens is a vintage 50mm Asahi Pentax Super-Takumar, with a metal magnifying glass attached to the front. The magnifying glass's knurled handle sticks out to the side. The background is an office with lots of photos of birds and bugs on the wall.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jul 6

My first macro lens as a kid was a magnifying glass my grandma gave me when I was 10 or 11, taped to the front of a used non-macro 50mm. lens on a used Yashica TL-Super film camera. This shot is that same magnifying glass taped to a 1964 50mm. lens, on my Nikon Z8 digital camera. See the aphid? 📷🪷

A closeup side-view photo of a water lily flower, pale purple with dark purple speckles. There is a tiny aphid on the underside of a petal just to the left of center.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jul 5

A closeup photo of a black standard poodle named Kosmo.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jul 4

Synchronous fireflies (Photinus carolinus), my favorite fireworks display ever, 2 years ago in Tennessee. Composite image using a modern camera and a 1964 50mm lens. I chose a focus point in front of where I thought the fireflies would be, so their lights would be rendered as out of focus orbs. 🐙🌿📷🎆

A photo of many dozens of yellow-green lights from fireflies, clustered on a diagonal from upper left to lower right. The firefly lights appear as orbs, not points, because they are beyond the shallow depth of focus.The night scene shows ferns and moss in the foreground left, and a stone bridge and steps near a stream in lower right.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jul 2

Lately I've had great work-life balance: both work and life have been burying me in equal measure. So in lieu of new photos, here's a throwback to ten years ago: an Ectatomma sp. ant (I think) I found carrying off an incredibly beautiful grasshopper in the Peruvian Amazon. #Bugsky 🐙🌿

A macro photo, vertical orientation, of an orange ant hanging upside-down from a mossy, brownish, horizontal twig. The ant is carrying a much larger grasshopper in its mandibles, gripping it by the abdomen. The grasshopper is rainbow-colored: yellow body, bright blue eyes, and legs banded in yellow, red, blue, and black. The grasshoppers antennae are dark with yellow tips.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 28

I really like these wasps because they look striking and are approachable. There's a closely-related species here, D. tolteca, that is orange rather than yellow (this one looks more orange than it was because of the tinted light coming through the dark wings.)

A macro photo, front three-quarter angle, of a black wasp with a yellow-banded abdomen, sipping nectar from small white buckwheat flowers with dark pink anthers. The wasp has dark amber wings and pale, almost white compound eyes. It has fringing of white hairs and rather spiky legs.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 28

Here is your Sunday Scoliid. This is Dielus sp., I think D. pilipes, the hairy-footed scoliid wasp. They parasitize soil-living scarab beetles. They kinda look like spiky-hairy paper wasps, but are solitary, with no nest to defend, so are docile and easy to photograph as they sip nectar. #Bugsky 🐙🌿

A macro photo of a black wasp with a yellow-banded abdomen, sipping nectar from small white buckwheat flowers with dark pink anthers. The wasp has dark amber wings and pale, almost white compound eyes.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 28

Eddie the Tortoise says hi 🐢

A closeup photo a Mojave Desert Tortoise named Eddie, on a sunny brick patio.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 28

A throwback to Borneo (too many) years ago. This is a female I believe Haania sp. moss mantis, only an inch or so long. We found her at night in the Danum Valley. Look closely and you can see she is carrying babies on her back. One of my favorite moments from the trip. 🐙🌿📷 #macro #BlueSkyArtShow

A macro photo, side view, of a very cryptically colored mantis on brown tree bark. The mantis is not only camouflaged with color, but her body has many moss-like projections on it. A closer look shows several of her small babies riding on her.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 21

Water Hyacinth 📷🌿

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 19

Up close to the pink fuzzy gummi that is a gray hairstreak butterfly caterpillar. I find these little lumps - pink, green, or white - on buckwheat flowers. Their heads are usually hidden under the squishy body, but if you zoom in, you can see this one's sharp jaws as it nibbles petals. 🐙🌿🐛 #Bugsky

A macro photo of the front two-thirds of a pink slug-like caterpillar on dark pink and orange crinkled flower petals, against a green out of focus background. The caterpillar is covered in sparse, short fuzz. Its head is mostly hidden below the body, but this one's sharp jaws are visible as it nibbles flower petals.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 18

A mantis nymph looking before she leaps. (Stagmomantis limbata, SoCal) Found in my garden today on a native buckwheat (Eriogonum sp.). The various species of buckwheats are among my favorite native plants; they are often pretty, in and out of flower, and attract tons of insects. 🐙🌿📷 #BugSky

A macro photo looking up at the underside of a yellowish-orange mantis nymph against a muted green background. The nymph is perched on a fuzzy, white-green cluster or flower buds lower right, with her forelegs held out in preparation to hopping up to another flower bud cluster in the extreme upper left.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 18

Epiphyte cactus flowers in the yard this morning 🌸🌻🌵

A photo of three large, multi-petal epiphytic cactus flowers in a hanging basket. The foreground flower is bright pink, and the two flowers behind it are yellow.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 16

An interesting find from Montana recently. This caterpillar was on meadow death camas, a toxic wildflower palatable to only a few insects. But I don't think this caterpillar will grow up - note the cluster of black dots, likely eggs (or external larvae?) of a parasitoid wasp or fly. 🐙🌿🐛💀 #BugSky

A macro photo, vertical orientation, of a cluster of cream and yellow flowers in the left half of the frame, and the front half of a green caterpillar, head down, on the flowers. A close look partway along the caterpillar's side shows a cluster of tiny, black, bean-shaped structures, eggs or larvae from a fly or wasp parasitoid.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 12

I hate FB, but keep a presence there mostly for the sake of a few older relatives and friends. Last week I posted a picture of a crab spider (also here), and FB replaced it with this stupid picture on at least one of my friend’s feeds. 🕷️

A picture of some random rich attractive white couple sitting in front of a red-rose swathed sign reading “La Petite Plage Saint Barth.” I originally posted a cool spider photo and facebook replaced it with this insipid image.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 7

This morning I'm helping a friend who's heading up a spider diversity survey, so in honor of that, here is your Sunday Spider, snacking (a wee crab spider with a plant bug; Montana) #Bugsky 🐙🌿🕷️

A macro photo of a crab spider among pale yellow flowers, preying on a black and pale orange bug. The spider has a light orange cephalothorax with a few black markings, and a greenish abdomen with a few dark speckles.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 7

Windswept marmot looking skeptical at 10K ft. on the Beartooth Plateau near the Montana/Wyoming border. If you're from back east, this is like a woodchuck, except in the mountains, and on rocks, so people here call them rockchucks. I do not believe they actually chuck rocks. But this one might. 📷🌿

A photo of a marmot, aka a rockchuck, atop a rock with some low alpine green tundra in the foreground. A snowbank fills the frame behind the marmot. The marmot's fur is ruffled by the high mountain winds, and you can see his or her marmot teeth.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 6

Fractal melting in an alpine lake surface, taken with 600 mm. lens from a high vantage point. (Twin Lakes, Beartooth Mountains, Wyoming, just south of the Montana border; lake elevation 9747 ft.)📷

$A photograph looking down on a mostly iced-over alpine lake, with a dark, tree-like pattern of melt areas fracturing the expanse of ice and snow. On the far lower left there is a turquoise-colored curve of meltwater, and a parallel dark curve of open water from which the "tree" grows horizontally out into the frozen lake.$

$A photograph looking down on a mostly iced-over alpine lake, with a dark, tree-like pattern of melt areas fracturing the expanse of ice and snow. The "tree" connects to a horizontal crack in the ice along the lower third of the frame, giving the impression of a low horizon in a winter landscape.$

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 6

Tree Swallow says "You shall not pass." (Montana) 🦉📷🌿

A photo of the blue and and white head of a tree swallow peeking out of the round entrance hole in a weathered wood nest box, with blue sky in the background on either side.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 6

Here's one more shot, a bit closer

A photo, vertical orientation, of a bright blue male mountain bluebird atop a weathered gray fence post. The bird has a black cricket in his beak and is cocking his slightly. The background is out of focus soft green and yellow.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 6

A male mountain bluebird with a cricket he's bringing back to the nest. (Montana) 📷🌿🦉

A photo of a bright blue mountain bluebird, in the right side of the frame, on a weathered rail fencepost. To the left is plant with yellow flowers, out of focus in the background along with a soft green field of grass. A closer look shows that the bluebird has a black cricket in his beak.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 5

A little caddisfly on a lichen-covered boulder, near a waterfall in Montana. Caddisfly adults look a bit like moths, and in fact their order (Trichoptera) is most closely related to moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera). Caddisflies have aquatic larvae which can spin silk.

A macro photo, side view, of a mottled brownish caddisfly on a wet, greenish-yellow, lichen-covered rock. There are a couple of small water droplets clinging to the insect.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 4

—of being strictly bilaterally symmetrical. Also, in the six individuals he’s seen in this species, they have never been 50-50 — always a bit more female, with female tissue crossing the midline but male tissue never doing so, as here on the thorax. (No photo credit by friend’s request for privacy)🐝

A photo looking down on an unusual bee on the ground. The bee is a stout bee called a carpenter bee, but what’s unusual is that it is both male and female, known as a gynandromorph. In this particular species (Xylocopa sonorina), females are jet black and males are fuzzy orange. This one has an abdomen that is divided into four perfect quadrants, like a checkerboard, alternating orange and black. The thorax is mostly black but with some orange.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 4

#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Shared with me by a fof in SoCal - this is a gynandromorph (both male & female) valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa sonorina). Females are black, males orange, so the extreme color dimorphism really stands out. Per Doug Yanega at UC Riverside, bee gynandromorphs he’s seen are mosaic instead—

A photo looking down on an unusual bee clinging to a green shirt. The bee is a stout bee called a carpenter bee, but what’s unusual is that it is both male and female, known as a gynandromorph. In this particular species (Xylocopa sonorina), females are jet black and males are fuzzy orange. This one has an abdomen that is divided into four perfect quadrants, like a checkerboard, alternating orange and black. The thorax is mostly black but with some orange.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 4

A jumping spider with a sesame-seed-size lance fly (Earomyia melnickae) on death camas. This fly is associated with death camas, which has toxic nectar & pollen. (I guess some spiders like spicy food.) The fly is female, told by her "lance" - the pointed ovipositor (usually not visible). #Bugsky 🐙🌿

A macro photo of a dark-colored jumping spider which has caught a small black fly with dark red eyes and orange-tinted wings. They are on cluster of flowers, white-petaled with yellow centers and yellow pollen. A close look at the fly's abdomen reveals a long, sharp point, like a "stinger," actually the fly's ovipositor.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 3

It's always a good day when you find a jumping spider. This is a male Phidippus johnsoni, spotted on a trail in the mountains in Montana. Their coloration may mimic female velvet ants, a type of wingless wasp with a strong sting. The spider is not dangerous unless you're a bug. #Bugsky 🐙🌿🕷️

A macro photo looking into the charming face of a jumping spider, standing on a bit of green moss with out of focus rock in the background. The spider is black, with metallic green chelicerae (the mouthparts that end in the fangs). A hint of the spider's bright red-orange abdomen can be seen behind the head.

A macro photo looking down on a jumping spider on a dark, lichen-covered rock. There is a bit of green moss at the bottom of the frame. The spider has a black cephalothorax and legs, and a bright red-orange abdomen.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 3

This female western painted turtle looks a little out of her element among the pine needles, but she was likely on an egg-laying expedition. Found at around 6000 ft. in the mountains of Montana, about 100 yards from a stream. 🐢🌿

A photo of the front half of a turtle sitting among pine needles and sticks. The turtle has a smooth, dark shell and dark skin with bright yellow stripes. A bit of bright orange edging is visible on plastron (lower shell).

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 2

Resting butterfly - Hayden's Ringlet, Coenonympha haydenii (Montana). These aren't flashy butterflies, but I love the textures and the eyespots. #Bugsky 🐙🌿📷

A closeup photo of a butterfly, wings folded, hanging upside-down amid thin green plant stems. The butterfly is yellowish-brown, with orange-bordered eyespots and an orange, curved, thin line on the trailing edges of the wings. The butterfly has a fuzzy body and the wings have fuzzy fringe around the borders.

Tom Astle@tjalamont· Jun 2

A small scarab soaked in waterfall mist. The metallic green on the beetle is not pigment, but structural color (a result of micro-structures that reflect only certain wavelengths). If you look closely within the droplets, the green is refracted into other hues. (Dichelonyx sp.; Montana) #Bugsky 🌿🐙📷

$A macro photo, side view, of a green beetle with orange legs and a dark thorax and head. The beetle is covered in drops of water of all different sizes (from a waterfall nearby). The beetle is clinging to a wet rock covered in pale yellowish-green lichen. The water droplets act like little prisms, refracting the light into highlights of purple and blue on the beetle's green back.$