My First Jagged Ambush Bug Sighting From July 30, 2007

This is my first Jagged Ambush Bug (Phymatinae) sighting from July 30, 2007, the first of many images since. Little by little, I am bringing my best works from flickr to Ipernity. This is a rather odd looking insect predator. They lie in wait on flowers for a flying insect to land and grab the insect with their "lobster-like" front claws. They then extend the mouth parts (folded under) and puncture the insect's body to suck out the body fluids. This one is a female and is perched on a Queen Ann's Lace flower. The males are darker with orange colored eyes and their bodies are chunkier looking. These insects are winged and fly from flower to flower to stalk their prey. They rely on stealth and some camouflage. They are rather small in size, about an eighth of an inch wide and about three eighths of an inch long. I have seen them with captured insects many time larger, including butterflies, honey bees and large bumble bees. The original image was twice life-size (2:1), at the sensor, and was cropped. For this image, I used my old manual focus Pre-AI Micro-Nikkor 55mm f3.5 Lens and Nikon PK-3 Extension Ring plus Vivitar 2X Teleconverter plus Fotodiox Nikon F mount to Canon EOS mount adapter ring on my Canon Digital Rebel XT (350D) Camera, handheld, manually focused, stop-down metered in Av mode, with fill-in flash with camera's built-in electronic flash. I captured this image in rural upstate Columbia County, New York, USA.