Posted on by larksparrow

10/08/2022 Ruby Grant park

Caterpillar on broom weed
A grasshopper with very worn wings on Grindelia.
A tree cricket on Grindelia!
A megachilid bee on Grindelia.
Fall is starting! Sumacs in particular are turning red.
A noctuid moth on Maximilian sunflowers.
A bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) nearby on the same sunflower plant.
So many Maximilian sunflowers!
Briar poses in front of the prairie filled with more sunflowers.
A purple aster!
On the first Liatris we saw, Paula found these purple caterpillars.
Mom mentioned Schinia sanguinea at home recently and we think that’s what these are. She saw the adult first then later the caterpillars. Two other Schinia sp can apparently also eat Liatris according to this website (and of course they don’t provide a citation). However the owlet moth caterpillar book, which Mom has, doesn’t mention this.
A sleepy Dainty Sulphur. It was a cloudy and cool day afternoon before sunset.
A parasitic wasp resting on snow-on-the-mountain.
Another interesting moth on Maximilian sunflowers.
Green grasshoppers were distracted so I got a close up of their textured greens!
The prairie is full of messages. Briar sniffs sunflowers as we walk by.
A long-horned bee rests on a Grindelia. There were so many Grindelia at all stages.
A very fuzzy Croton species.

6 Replies to “10/08/2022 Ruby Grant park”

  3. Are the parks you visit all located in Norman? There are some really good wild areas in them. Re: the Schinia caterpillars – my book Caterpillars of Eastern North America by Dr. David Wagner doesn’t mention Schinia sanguinea but does briefly profile S. arcigera which he states feeds on Asteraceae. The caterpillar in his photo looks similar to yours.

    Reply

    1. Yes all of these are in Norman or Noble (the very small city just south and adjacent to us). So I am very pleased the city seems to be into more wild parks! There’s an older “wild “ park in town too that is even more used by joggers etc that we don’t go to as much.

      I have that book too. The owlet moth book has a table covering host plants of most or all Schinias. The specific asters listed for Arcigera are “Aster: A. laevis, A. multiflorus, A. puniceus,
      Perches on stems below flowers: tunnels down into disk
      etc.; Centaurea maculosa, Conyza canadensis, flowers to feed.
      Heterotheca subaxillaris, Limonium carolinianum, and Machaeranthera tenuis”. The book makes it sound like cats are all pretty similar except for host plants

      Reply

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