Faust Park: Bugs, a Flower, and More Bugs

Faust Park is part of the St. Louis County Parks System.  I go to it once a year, usually late August or early September.  I’d like to go to it more often but it’s a bit out of the way.  It is unique among other St. Louis County parks in that it has a relationship with the Missouri Botanical Garden.  The Garden maintains a butterfly house on the grounds as well as two outdoor gardens adjacent to the butterfly house.  One is out front and borders a small lake, the other (int the back) has to be accessed by going through the butterfly house.  This garden is fenced off from the general public and you can only gain access by paying admission to the butterfly house.

Both the front and rear garden have a wide variety of plants and flowers with numerous Missouri natives and this abundance and mixed flora attracts a wide variety of insects.  I don’t have a preference for either garden except I do like the layout of the rear garden better.  I think it was the year before last that I drove out to the park for a photo shoot.  As I walked up to the butterfly house it dawned on me that I had forgotten to bring my Missouri Botanical Garden membership ID which gets me in for free.  It’s only $5.00 for non-member seniors but the idea of paying rubbed me the wrong way so I had to settle for just the front garden.  I now carry the ID card in my wallet.

 

I’m pretty sure these next two photos are of a ringed paper wasp, based on the yellow ring near the top of his abdomen.

 

 

A carpenter bee.  As I’ve said before the easiest way to distinguish a carpenter bee from a bumble bee is that the carpenter bee’s abdomen is all black, smooth, and shiny versus the bumble bee’s fuzzy black and yellow abdomen.

 

 

 

Here is the flower referenced in the title to this post.  I’d tell you what kind it is but I don’t know.

 

I think maybe this is a shield bug.  Hard for me to tell at this angle.

 

Milkweed bug nymphs (the little yellow things in the lower left) and some larger red juveniles.

 

 

I’m not sure what this started out as but it appears he is morphing into the fairly rare Reformed Dragonfly.  As you can see he is in the process of turning over a new leaf.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

David

All photos taken with a Nikon D7100 and a Sigma 105mm macro lens.