Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Buggy
I saw my first Zebra Swallowtail of the year yesterday. This is the first time I've been able to get a photo of one.
A new butterfly for the yard list showed up on the back steps this morning - a Hackberry Emperor. Maybe it was attracted to the moisture from last night's (scanty) rain? Sooooo, what's a hackberry? I had to look this one up. But maybe our little patch of woods contains a hackberry. There's a small tree on the edge of the woods that I haven't been able to identify, although I assumed it was a hornbeam. Have to take a better look at it, maybe with a key in hand. The butterfly guides say the Hackberry Emperor doesn't stray far from Hackberries.
I went out to water the Kaffir Lime tree a couple of evenings ago, and was surprised to find a rather large moth on the side of the pot. When I posted the picture, I didn't have a clue what it was, but after spending some time at bugguide.net I think it must be a species in the genus Catocala. Had I known that's what it was at the time, I would have nudged it to see if it would flash me with its underwings ;-)
And lastly, here is another unidentified bug. Strange, but cool.
PS. I back-dated this post. Blogger was having trouble again and I couldn't get in to post it when I wrote it.
Update: June 10, 2006
I submitted the moth photo to bugguide.net. Within a short time, a kind and knowledgeable contributor identified it as a Waved Sphinx Moth. Too bad it wasn't a Catocala - now I want to see one.
4 Comments:
your unidentified moth looks like a gypsy moth.
Well, I wondered about that myself, so I went to bugguide.net and searched for "gypsy moth". The search results turned up a picture of a Calocata moth; someone was inquiring whether it was a gypsy moth. The moth I had here looked much more like the Calocata than a gypsy moth.
i came across your blog, while looking for "squirrels building nests in july"
wondered where you were writing from as you seem to have a warmer and longer growing season than us.
your pictures are great. you must spend a lot of time in your outdoor space. enjoy, summer is all too short.
Anon, I'm in Northern Virginia. Funny you should mention squirrels building nests in July. I just noticed a new nest a few days ago, and it caught my attention because it was rather low in the tree - maybe only 10 feet off the ground. I think I read somewhere that they have two litters a year in this area so maybe they're gearing up for round 2. Have you seen squirrels building nests lately?
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