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Insects
Wheel Bug: a Bee Killer
Today in the garden, I found a wheel bug (Arilus cristatus) that had just caught a bee in the backyard. I got a few pictures, click on them to see the larger images. A wheel bugs catches its prey by plunging its beak into them and holding them with legs. It the injects them with [...]
Lepidopteracide
I was walking around my butterfly bush/sneezeweed/salvia garden and I happened across an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, caught in a spiderweb. The spider was already working on the swallowtail so I quick got my camera to document the process. The second time I went out the butterfly was gone, stored away for later eating. I searched [...]
Backyard Butterflies
All the plants I put in my hummingbird garden this spring are attracting good numbers of butterflies.The popular plants are the butterfly bush, sneezeweed, and marigolds. Silver Spotted Skipper are easily the most common butterfly in my backyard, sometimes with numbers in the double digits.
Mourningcloak
The Mourningcloak (Nymphalis antiopa) is a medium-sized (2-4 inchwingspan) butterfly which is easily identified by the yellow trailing edge to its wings. On the inner edge of the yellow border there are iridescent blue spots making it very striking and distinctive. It belongs to the family Nymphalidae which are known as the ‘brush-footed butterflies’. Their [...]
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