Of the more than 800,000 species of insects on the earth, Costa Rica is home to over 34,000 of them. Let me introduce you to a few that I’ve met while here. You’ll want to click on the images to enlarge them for detail.

I spotted this gorgeous blue/purple beetle on the rug on Brandon’s deck. He was about the size of a small ladybug. Sadly he was dead… but on the bright side, he held still while I photographed him : )

The jungles of Puerto Viejo are hot, humid and teeming with insect life – colorful, beautiful, strange, interesting, ugly, musical, loud… and of course the man eating mosquitoes, which I could have definitely done without. Brandon had 26 bites on one foot. Mine are more evenly disbursed on my body.

This shiny little green beetle hopped away before I could get my new macro lens on the camera. But he was very pretty.

We saw a funky little caterpillar.

And some tiny little bees making a tiny little beehive.

I love the iridescent colors on this mosquito-ish looking creature. I wonder if he was one of the bugs that bit me. I’m still itching!

This beautiful silver-bodied dragonfly fluttered about with 4 distinct wings – more like a butterfly than dragonfly.

He was stunning.

At least a dozen large blue morpho butterflies fluttered past us while we were sitting on the deck. Hundreds of butterflies played in the garden – but none held still long enough for me to capture their images.

This delightful dragonfly was nice enough to pose for me…

The giant winged bug below joined us on the outdoor settee one evening. His colors were magnificent, and his body was speckled with metallic gold. We discovered later that he is a cicada… one of the creatures that filled the air with very loud song.

Evening Jungle Sounds – Cidada

Marie was delighted to let this giant grasshopper crawl all over her, and she called him her pet. He seemed to like her hair. His antennae were freakishly long!

We were enthralled by the giant purple grasshoppers in the garden. They were everywhere! Beautiful coloring – when hopping/flying, the underside of the wings is brilliant red.

Just look at his armor – he looks like an alien… I think he may have been the inspiration for some alien species on Stargate SG-1 or Star Trek. What do you think?

Last but not least, when we returned to Escazu Marie discovered this really funky beetle (large ladybug-size) strolling by the pool.

So those are the most interesting bugs I was able to photograph. Do you have a favorite?

I’m sure happy I bought a new macro lens before my trip – it’s been so much fun to get these extreme close ups of Costa Rican insect life.