We got some greens out and there was ice pooled in the greenhouse edge. The greens were fine!Cozy enough in the greenhouse on the bok choy for some caterpillars!
Caterpillar on broom weedA 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.
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!
The greeneyes is starting to bloom in the backyard prairie! This grew from seeds that I put out a year, maybe two years, ago.Hmm… What is this brown lumpy thing on the butterfly milkweed?An exciting, dare I say unexpected, find by Paula… The Unexpected Cycnia moth caterpillar!I spotted this second Unexpected Cycnia caterpillar on a different plant a few inches away. Apparently they only eat milkweeds, so we are very pleased to find one in the orange butterfly milkweed section of the rainbow garden. It’s also our 150th yard species on inaturalist!A dead cicada. No fun buzzes but Briar hoped.Watermelon in the farm share this week. Yum!!
Monarda fistulosa American germander Sumac berries Probably blueheartsWhite prairie cloverGreenthread flower with a geometrid moth caterpillar Sensitive briarAnnual coreopsis Big red eared slider lady digging a hole for her eggs above the pond.