catgrin

That's one dazzling dragonfly!

What an amazing display! It looks like you're viewing a butterfly through a kaleidoscope!

They are a fungus - a type of tiny mushroom that I believe belongs to the genus Marasmius - but anyone, please feel free to correct me. Your pictures aren't clear enough for me to compare to online images for ID, and I'm in no way an expert on fungi (hardly know a thing!), so I'm going to suggest you check out genus Marasmius for yourself while awaiting an i.d. You know better what they looked like.

The images already do look like at least three possible species to me: Marasmius androsaceus, Marasmius capillaris, or Marasmius pallidocephalus - so that should help to get you started!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marasmius

They're skittish as well? Yeesh! Glad you managed to hunt one down!

:)

Beautiful! Spider and web in focus, too! Lovely spotting!

Thanks! I read the Wiki before I asked you about it. (Wouldn't have asked without checking basic places first - I'm not like that.) Just wondered if you already knew of any specific pollinators because it's such an exaggerated shape and color scheme. It's a dark color setup for humans and mammals, but to an insect, I bet that flower's spadix glows like neon light on a diner!

Here's a link that does further discuss pollination by this species. It's apparently not bees or wasps, but rather mainly moths and flies that propagate this flower - it has no strong perfume.

http://www.maltawildplants.com/ARAC/Aris...

Around here we have equal problems with Plodia interpunctella - Indian Meal Moths!

I was surprised as well - but with such a large range it's not surprising. No one has separated them into different subspecies (probably to keep the insect recognized as a pest under one name).

No problem! People who are on here are genuinely interested in the things they get pictures of, so I feel it's worth it to provide whatever good info I can!