David Mathre Photography

Insects and Spiders

  • Male Monarch Territorial Flight
    Summer in New Jersey. Male Monarch Territorial Flight. Image taken with a Nikon Zf camera and 70-300 mm VR lens.

    This year I had Monarch butterflies in my New Jersey backyard wildflower garden from May through November. I observed the first Monarch hiding in a patch of Mugwort weeds on the 17th of May. I have five varieties of Milkweed growing in my wildflower garden to support the Monarch butterflies. The last Monarch of the season was observed on the 10th of November. At this point, there are not many flowers still blooming so little for the Monarch to feed on. It better be heading south to Mexico (or Florida). There may have been as many as 6 or 7 generations of Monarch butterflies in my backyard this season. In the past I maybe saw one early in the spring, and then several in September and October. The following is a short (5 minute) slide show of the Monarch butterflies in my backyard.

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  • Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

    My first sighting of a Monarch Butterfly this year. Of course, I didn’t have the right camera or lens when I saw it but took the shot anyways. With a camera having a 100-megapixel sensor, you have a lot of leeway to crop in. All most as if you have a longer telephoto lens. I do have lots of Milkweed plants growing in the wildflower meadow. I hope to have images of Monarch Butterflies feeding when more flowers start blooming.

    Uncropped Image (11656 x 8742) of a Monarch Butterfly Hiding in the Mugwort Weeds. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 75 mm f/3.4 lens (ISO 800, f/8, 1/250 sec).
    Cropped Image (2403 x 1802) of a Monarch Butterfly Hiding in the Mugwort Weeds. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 75 mm f/3.4 lens (ISO 800, f/8, 1/250 sec).
    Cropped Image (900 x 675) of a Monarch Butterfly Hiding in the Mugwort Weeds. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 75 mm f/3.4 lens (ISO 800, f/8, 1/250 sec).

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  • Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

    Even before it was officially spring, I’ve been seeing lots of what I thought were Milkweed Bugs. It didn’t really make any sense since the Milkweed hadn’t even started growing yet. Today, I took a macro image of a mating pair of the bugs and did a visual search on Bing. The search pointed me to Lygaeus turcicus, the False Milkweed Bug. The False Milkweed Bug feeds on seeds of the False Sunflower. Last year I had a large patch of False Sunflower plants next to the house. The False Sunflower plants apparently do a good job of self-seeding, since there are even more of the plants this year and they are already 3 feet high. It is a section that for several years I had a hard time of growing anything being under a Sycamore tree. The Sycamore tree died (anthracnose) so the section now does get more sun. This pair of False Milkweed Bugs are mating on a False Sunflower leaf.

    False Milkweed Bug (Lygaeus turcicus). Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens with a 9 mm macro extension tube (ISO 3200, f/11, 1/160 sec).

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