These large and interesting Lycidae beetles (Lycus fernandezi) were abundant in south eastern Arizona a few weeks ago. Constantly flying between flowers and moist sand they were making for easy photography targets. I thought to myself “here is a great opportunity to catch a beetle taking off!”.
Wait for it…
Lycus fernandezi (Lycidae)
Wait for it…
Lycus fernandezi (Lycidae)
Crap.
Lycus fernandezi (Lycidae)
If it hadn’t been 105 degrees out and I didn’t have a cloud of flies clinging to my face I would have fixed my camera settings and waited for another chance. But this is all my patience could bear – after all it’s just a beetle!
Just a beetle? Blasphemer!
(Nice shot :))
I did gain some massive respect for those tiger beetle photos of yours – those same pools of water were surrounded by thousands of tiger beetles (all the same species it looked like). I couldn’t get close to one!