Schinia gaurae moth (the clouded crimson) caterpillar on false gaura! We counted nine around our 1.75 mi loop. The tall rosettes of the false gaura were nice to see since they look just like my garden one. A Schinia moth I haven’t identified feeding on aster flowers. This bumblebee loved the Salvia azurea. Back of two spotted bumblebee where you can see the spots!Funnel web spider says no pictures, please. A tree cricket hiding on Liatris. The seed pod of a Baptisia. Mom said possibly B. australis var. minorPaula found two big beautiful lynx spider mommas! Wow! This is one guarding its egg sac. A tiny caterpillar on false gaura. The first Solomon’s seal I’ve seen in the wild! We have several in the yard but no idea if they’re volunteers or planted. Probably a buckwheat, the botany consulting committee says. Abby, Mom, and Jeanne also agreed this was probably a dwarf lead plant. Paula found a magnificent sumac leaf turning yellow to red. The Sumac is really turning beautiful reds all over!
Partridge pea blooming.A big skipper caught my attention this morning.I think it may be a Confused Cloudywing or an Outis Skipper. The pale ish area below the antennal club is why I think maybe Outis Skipper, but I also get the impression that one is rarer, so I wonder if I’m missing something obvious that makes it a cloudywing. Both have been recorded in Cleveland county, Oklahoma though.Saw a two spotted bumblebee on mealy blue sage again!The juniperleaf cuttings have started to perk up and poke at the plastic wrap, so I am unsealing them a bit to see if they can handle less humidity yet.Silly sleep
Before I left for work, I saw two bumblebees on the culinary sage flowers. Local bee expert José Montalva helped confirm the identification as Bombus bimaculatus (two spotted bumblebee) and sent me a very helpful article on the status of this and other bumblebee species in Oklahoma. It’s more of an eastern species so it is very cool to have them here on the edge of their range. This is also the third bumblebee species for our yard.This was the best picture though not the best identification angle. Big pollen bags on her legs!A little wasp on the purple coneflower.On campus, I saw several Fiery Skippers on lantana.Here’s another Fiery Skipper on campus lantana.Back at home, the blue flax is thinking about blooming!The Chef made egg drop soup with garden walking onions as a garnish.Car ride!!Saw a friend. Wow!Little lumpy beetles are on a lot of flowers right now. They’re cute.In the evening I saw one or two more two-spotted bumblebees, this time over on the perennial coreopsis.I didn’t manage to get a good picture of the spots in the evening.But I got some decent side views.Lightning bug!A paper wasp. An immature assassin bug eating some sort of probable pentatomid bug. Zoom in though and you’ll see several kinds of flies!! I’m not sure, but I think they might be some kind of kleptoparasitic fly that steals nibbles from bigger predators.
