Spots and lines of a bug and its perch capture the imagination of a photographer
IN REGAL REPOSE, a lone convergent lady beetle—named for the two converging white lines on its head—rests on a frond of western sword fern in a cool corner of California’s Muir Woods National Monument. Dotted with orange spore sacs, or sori, the flamboyant fern caught the eye of amateur botanist and flower photographer Zelma Hall. While on a walk in the woods, she rounded a corner and was “intrigued” to see massive clusters of lady beetles on every surface. Yet this solitary beetle was the literal standout of the day.
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