Time for the small things again.

I should have said for the beautiful small insects, as they keep the eco-system going.

I collect random insect shots on my wanders in nature, until I have enough to do a post, and so I took these photos over a week period. This time around I will try to put the identification of the insects above the pictures. Once we understand the important role of insects in the ecosystem, then we will realise that they are actually very beneficial to have around in nature.

Dragonflies, for instance, are indicators of fresh water, and whenever you see a lot of dragonflies at a pond or at a river then you will know the water is safe to drink. If no dragonflies are present, then rather avoid drinking the water. This is, of course, valid in nature and not in chemically treated water. Each of the insects that you see in here form one or another purpose in nature.

Here we have a male Banded Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa caffra) (3 shots).

A side view of a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) sitting upright on one of our flower boxes.

This is a tiny male African Grass Blue Butterfly (Zizeeria knysna).

This one below is a Large Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris brassicae).

Let's see what Wikipedia has to say about the roles of insects in the ecosystem.

Insects play significant roles in the ecology of the world due to their vast diversity of form, function, and lifestyle. They are the major contributor to biodiversity in most habitats, except in the sea, they play a variety of important ecological roles in the many functions of an ecosystem. In the case of nutrient recycling, insects contribute to this vital function by degrading or consuming leaf litter, wood, carrion and dung, and by dispersal of fungi.

Insects form an important part of the food chain, especially for entomophagous vertebrates such as many mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Insects play a critical role in maintaining community structure and composition; in the case of animals through diseases transmission, predation and parasitism, and in plants through phytophagy and plant propagation through pollination and seed dispersal. From an anthropocentric point of view, insects compete with humans; they consume as much as 10% of the food produced by man and infect one in six humans with a pathogen.

Source

This is a Fork-tailed Bluet Damselfly (Proischnura subfurcata), and can you believe it sat on a leaf of our lemon tree.

Maybe this is a Brown-veined White Butterfly (Belenois aurota).

Finally, here below, is a Hairtail Butterfly (Anthene definita) (2 shots).

The amazing thing is that these little ones are so intricately designed and their colors are just as amazing. One would think that all insects should be killed and if so then we will be in big trouble. Yes, we know that some of them are called "pests", especially the ones that damage food crops on the farms, but that is just their nature.

In our country we have different biomes, and the interesting thing is that you will not find a mix up of insects in any of the biomes, and different insects populate each of the biomes. One would think that the insects would be found all over, but not so. There might be some exceptions, but generally the insects reside in the biome in their part of the country. Different food draws different insects.
Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos and words by Zac Smith. No AI and no Photoshop. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Until next time, shalom!