Where Have the Insects Gone?

I love taking photos of butterflies and other insects. I was hoping to get a lot of good shots this year, particularly since I got the new Canon Rebel. I haven't seen many this year though. Last year we had several large garden spiders, and all summer the butterfly bush was covered in flying insects, including butterflies. This year there were honeybees right at the start of the summer, along with some black and gold large bees, and a few skipper butterflies. Ominously, only the black and gold bees remain. That bush should be covered all summer and into the fall. I have only seen a couple of butterflies. And I have not seen a single ladybug this year.

In fact, Cornell University is doing a population study of Ladybugs and has asked for the public's help.

It has been a year for chameleons anoles though. Here are some shots of some that I took in East Texas. I just hope they had plenty of insects to eat, so there will be chameleons anoles next year. I did see some younger chameleons anoles in the same place later in the year so I'm assuming these bad boys found some lady friends.

These are all the same chameleon anole. On the picture below, he's the one on the right. Just as I was finishing taking pictures the fellow on the left stalked up and they began circling the electrical socket and eyeballing each other. I guess it was some sort of territorial thing since both chameleon's anoles were male. There was a lot of strategic posing going on.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry for chameleons anoles, if you are interested in learning more about them.