One of the lions at the Salzhauers' house.  They are looking right as you when you walk in the door.  Most people just have a welcome mat or something, but they have two lions.  It's pretty cool.

This is a caterpillar that I found crawling on some flowers in Wake Forest.  It is a very young Monarch caterpillar, Danaus plexippus. Check out this series of photos of a monarch caterpillar making a chrysalis, maturing, and hatching into a butterfly.

This is most likely an Eastern Yellowjacket, Vespula Maculifrons, but it might be a Common Aerial Yellowjacket, Dilochovespula arenaria.  It was on the porch this morning eating the remnants of honey left from some bee hives.

A Tiger Bee Fly, Xenox tigrinus, in Wendell, NC.  Its larvae feed on carpenter bees.

This is a Triceratops Beetle, Phileurus truncatus.  I actually found it crawling around inside the house a week or two ago.  They are attracted to lights and it was late at night, so I am guessing it found its way inside somehow.  Because it was so late, I put it in my bug-catching jar with a nibble of cake until the next day when I let it go and took a few pictures.

So if anyone is wondering, Triceratops Beetles can survive on cake and icing for at least a day or two.

This is a male Eastern Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa virginica.  It is easy to tell the difference between males and females, as long as you can see their heads.  Males have a white or light yellow face, whereas females have solid black faces.  There is also a difference in shape of the compound eyes.  Carpenter bees in general are normally docile, but males do not even have a stinger, so there is no worry of them harming you at all.

This one is crawling on my hand, in case you were wondering.

This is an Ailanthus Webworm Moth, Atteva punctella.  They are somewhat common in this area and normally about an inch or so long when fully grown.  The color patterns are very interesting.  One might think that the bright orange color and distinct pattern would make them stand out, but they blend in with their surroundings quite well at a distance, even to a human eye.

Um, at least I'm pretty sure it's a cheetah.  This is at the Salzhauers 50th Anniversary party today.  They are big game hunters, so their house is full of cool creatures like this.  I took a lot of pictures there, so I'll post some of the best ones over the next week or so.

This is an adult, male aphid on the end of a yellow chili pepper.  I took this at the Wake Forest Farmers Market last year.  It came out very well.  You can see a cropped version at normal resolution here.

A close up portion of this image.