Tag: spiderweb

Posted on

01/28/2024 grasslands field trip

Mom stands on the edge of overgrazed grass at edge of bare winter woods
Mutual photography of bloggers.
Zoomed out view
Close up
More close up
I saw a tiny dew covered spiderweb in a hollow in the ground!
A cute little seedling at just the seed leaves stage, near the dew covered spiderweb.
Briar turns to face the photographer against a backdrop of winter oaks
Who me?
After turning around in the previous picture, briar majestically lifts her head in the bright winter sunlight
Briar can pretend to be majestic and noble!
Still closed mostly
Open!
We saw several Scleroderma earthballs.
A prairie verbena purpled leaves for winter but still alive.
Last year’s branches of queen’s delight (Stillingia), the limestone species.
Briar sat nearby as Mom tried to get a picture of the Stillingia stems too.
So tiny
Unfurling leaves
Mom has been seeing Cymopterus blooming in other nearby sites but in this site they were just emerging.
Posted on

10/09/2022 Saxon park

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. minor
Paula 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!
Posted on

06/23/2022

The second Coryphantha sulcata seedling seems to have died, but the original is getting longer.
Another two spotted bumblebee (Bombus bimaculatus) visited the mealy blue sage today!
There was only one but I took a lot of angles. You can see the two spots if you zoom in.
In flight you get the best view of spots.
I liked the pollinating wasp zooming through in this picture.
Baby mantis!
I believe this is a baby red yucca, as that’s what I planted here, and it seems too sturdy to be grass.
A big ol mydas fly in the backyard!!
The native clematis likes its new sunnier spot about 20 ft to the west. It already has two or three new leaves!
I weeded the strawberry/honey berry bed but got called in for dinner when there was still a patch left. Maybe tomorrow.
I found a second pale zig zaggy spider in the backyard. Looking at it closer, I think it’s the wrong pattern and shape for Argiope aurantica, the usual banana spider.
Filling up the bird bath intrigued the dog.
African blue basil has flowers!
One of the many marigolds in the raised beds (we mixed the old seedheads and plants in over the winter) is beginning to flower!
The corn is going to town! A vaquero bean is flowering!
A fine little bell pepper!!
Cooling off after gardening with the mysterious Paper Protozoan. Note the hairy flagellum sticking out.
Posted on

05/13/2022 world’s most adorable banana spider and other friends

The featured adorable tiny baby banana spider (Argiope aurantica). They are also known as garden spiders. That’s more common, but I prefer banana spider.
A tiny spider has caught a stilt bug. Mom, do you remember what these ones with the messy webs were called? The plant is a native Euphorbia.
Here’s an ant and a living stilt bug. I think it’s a Maximilian sunflower leaf they’re on, but I don’t know why I would have put one in this little pot. We’ll see.
A bombyliid bee fly on the coreopsis out front.
Posted on

A neighbor ecosystem

On Tuesday this week, Mom and I visited the Dixon Water Foundation’s property near Leo, TX (north of FM 455). Mom has been blogging it all week! Have a look starting on her Nov. 9th post (opens in new tab) and keep going to the next post through Nov. 12. She took a lot more pictures than me.

An ammonite impression!
Going places
Blurry jumping spider but I liked its colors.
Round hole on rock
Neat tiny fossils
Mom said this is considered Fort Worth Prairie, adjacent to cross timbers. Hence neighbor ecosystem.
Hmm a rock.
Surprise!! Second small rock on a big rock with a spider under it for this trip.
Neoscona crucifera
Buttonbush
The grotto
Snail hiding
Fossil mollusc
A pretty live oak acorn
Native grass and lichen covered rock
Maybe a grape seedling.  I have these come up in my yard, I think, so I guess I better let one grow.  I had been assuming they were trees of some sort.
A sea urchin fossil!  Probably Holaster sp. according to the book Mom has on fossils of North America.
A view of creek leading to grotto.
Neat lichens
More neat lichens
The grotto again. Kept going back to look at it.
A shrike left some frog jerky.
Late fall is Spiranthes season! Commonly known as ladies’ tresses orchid