Sandi Kirwin

All photographs © Sandi Kirwin

Western Orb Weaver, (family Araneidae). Many spiders display great sexual dimorphism, the main difference between male and female spotted western orb weavers is a slight matter of size and coloring. Both share color palettes – brown, yellow, white, purple and red – but females are brighter and have stronger contrasts. This beauty was near a freeway underpass, near busy street intersection.

Nymph Hopper (family Cicadellidae … maybe).

This little guy was about the size of a lentil bean. The nymph of leafhoppers have gears on the base of each of their hind legs. These gears have teeth that intermesh, keeping the legs synchronised when the insect jumps, preventing it from losing directional stability. When the nymph matures into an adult, they shed these gears.

Monarch Caterpillar, (family Nymphalidae).After several molts, the caterpillar attains a length of almost two inches. When e fully grown it usually leaves its milkweed plant to pupate elsewhere as a pale green, golden-spotted chrysalis.After 10–14 days the chrysalis becomes transparent, and the metamorphosed butterfly’s dark body is visible.

False Blister Beetle (family Oedemeridae). There are some 100 genera and 1,500 species in this family, mostly associated with rotting wood as larvae, though adults are quite common on flowers. This one was photographed inAnza Borrego.

All photographs © Sandi Kirwin

Hover Fly (family Syrphidae). Hover flies with their yellow markings, resemble wasps or bees but do not bite or sting. In addition to being beneficial as pollinators, in their immature stage the tiny, nearly invisible slug-like larvae scour the undersides of plant leaves for aphids and eat them as their primary food source. Photographed on a rose bush in Palos Verdes.