mthew
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Moth O’clock
A White-speck Moth landed on my thigh, took to my palm, walked around to my arm, and then was coaxed onto a tree. Raspberry Pyrausta Moth, stirred up as I walked by. Dogwood Borer Moth. Just sitting there.
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Bees
We’ve had a lot of wasps on here recently, so how about a sampling of bees now? Great Northern and Brown-belted bumblebees. One of the leaf-cutters. Megachile genus bees carry pollen on their abdomen. Eight-toothed Cuckoo Leaf-cutter. Agapostemon genus. Confusing Furrow Bee. Maybe. Two-spotted Longhorn. Is this a drop of water or nectar? Either way,…
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Raptor Wednesday
I could hear this Red-tailed Hawk youngster calling from some distance away.
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Butterflies
Red Admiral. Orange Sulphur. Clouded Sulphur. Black Swallowtail. Spicebush Swallowtail. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Question Mark. Red Hairstreak. Fiery Skipper (male). Eastern Tailed-blue. Summer Azure. Sachem (female left, male right).
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Butternuts
The tropical storm with all the vowels in its name brought down a lots of branches in the city last week. Green-Wood Cemetery was closed for two days for clean up. Some whole trees were uprooted as well, and some weakened ones snapped. One was this butternut, Juglans cinerea. Already a shadow of its former…
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Book and Flowers and Bugs
A month of summer yet, at least as the calendar goes. But Carol Gracie’s Summer Wildflowers is good the whole year through. You’ll love opening this in early January! I can’t better the foreword by NYBG’s Robert Naczi: “Gracie seamlessly integrates diverse facets about these plants—history, geography, habitats, human uses, morphology, classification, pollination, conservation, and…
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Blue-winged Ones
Zethus spinipes, I think. One of the potter and mason wasps. Note all the parts of the mouth, like little tendrils. Isodontia philadelphica, a grass-carving wasps, also sans a common name. Female and, with the face dot, male Four-toothed Mason Wasps (Monobia quadridens). Nearctic Blue Mud-dauber (Chalybion californicum), presumably. Very similar looking to the Steel-blue…
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Sharpshooters
A nymph Broad-headed Sharpshooter. The adult form is amazing, so I’ll keep my eye out for them now. A lot of people resist the appeal of insects, but this one might break down some barriers. In unmown meadow, here’s a Draeculacephala genus sharpshooter. Couldn’t get another photo because it shot off at the slightest provocation.…
Backyard and Beyond 