Passion flower

This is the host plant for the gulf fritillary butterfly's caterpillar. We planted this by the mailbox and it survived the summer.

Smaller caterpillar

Again a gulf fritillary caterpillar on the Passion flower vine. This plant and others in the maypop family are the only things these guys can eat.

Gulf fritillary caterpillar about ready to pop. I think we'll have a cocoon soon.

Seedy situation

The seed pods of the tropical milkweed are opening up. This is Asclepias tuberosa, one of the favorite host plants for the Monarch butterfly caterpillar. We are aiming for a big stand of it next year.

One less housefly

  Didn't know that these critters killed houseflies. Good for them, I say.
Cropped this one to get rid of the thumb that had crept in front of the lens.
Also, it's tough getting these shots with an iPhone in full sun. That screen just doesn't stand out enough.
So as a result you shoot several frames and hope for the best.
Also, I shaded this with my hat, which helped a bit.
There's a shot from the other side of the fly that shows the proboscis sticking into the fly, but it's too fuzzy to use, darn.

Assassin bug? (Actually a wheel bug)

Macro photos on the cheap

So here's the start. I've always been captivated by macrophotography, ever since I learned that I could take the 50mm lens off my old Mamia-Sekor, turn it around and focus by hand, so to speak, to get close-up images.
I also love some of the sites I've seen of "real" macro work, especially of insects. I have a digital camera but not the lenses to make it work.
Then I started playing with the iPhone camera, adding a 79-cent hand lens. Sure enough, I can get some pretty good macro images with this setup, and the price certainly is right.
I'll share some of these on this site. Enjoy, and give it a try yourself.
I'm running a stock iPhone 4 (not the 4s) and that 79-cent lens to get the closeups.
Let me know what you think.