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June 2011
Ichneumon Wasp (Ichneumon clasma) parasitizes sawfly larvae
April 2011
An Ichneumon Wasp pollinates Bloodroot flowers this spring.
Tiny Carpenter Bees pollinate Hepatica
First March Fly sighting in mid May 2011
Locust Borer ~ Megacyllene robiniae This beetle was nectaring on Stiff Goldenrod. At first glance I thought it was a wasp species with the black and yellow markings.
July 29th, 2010
Northern Paper Wasp ~ Polistes fuscatus These paper wasps have been very active on our Boneset and Ironweed. They also prey on caterpillars.
July 26th, 2010
Tachinid Fly ~ Trichopoda pennipes This fly caught my eye when walking past our raingarden. It has a bright orange abdomen and holds its wings out laterally like a plane. It turns out he is an assassin of sorts, parasitizing insects in the bug (Hemiptera) family.
July 21st, 2010
Northern Crescent Butterfly ~ Phyciodes selenis I spotted this butterfly while looking for tree frogs in our sunny garden by the driveway. I have seen crescents before, but this was the first time in our yard. Its major food source is asters which we have plenty of.
July 16th, 2010
Blue Mud Daubers ~ Chalybion californicum We have had many of these mud daubers in the last month nectaring on the Culver's Root and Dotted Mint. They have hairs on their thorax that collect pollen so you will see some with what looks like light yellow thoraxes. They are an amazaing iridescent blue black.
June 21st, 2010
Polythemus Moth Eggs I found these moth eggs at our local park on a blade of grass. A week earlier a Polythemus Moth was nearby where the eggs were found. Polythemus moths are a very large moth around 3.5" in width and very colorful with prominent 'eyes' on the rear and fore wings. I brought the blade of grass home and have placed it under one of our birch trees (birch is one of the food sources for the caterpillars).
May 27, 2010
Spring Azure Butterfly - Celastrina ladon
(Nectaring on the Common Ninebark shrub.)
This butterfly was hard to capture because it would not stay still for long. Fortunately, it perched on this leaf just long enough to capture a photo.
Dragonflies have justed started to show up in the yard. This one was busy sunning itself on one of our many rocks.
We have been adding several types of milkweeds to our yard, most recently the whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata) which grows in a nearby park in a shortgrass prairie remnant along with Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida).
We often look for cues in nearby parks to determine what we could add into our own landscape.
