Creatures

Plathemis lydia (Common Whitetail)

Photograph taken on Tuesday, August 22, 2017 by Henry
Plathemis lydia (Common Whitetail)

Plathemis lydia (Common Whitetail)

I went outside a little before 1:00 PM today and it was quite warm and very muggy. I took a few pictures of wildflowers but it looked like I was not going to get any insect pictures. There were plenty about but they were all moving quite a lot, which makes it hard. I also didn’t feel like hanging out in the hot sun any longer than necessary. As I was leaving, this female common whitetail (Plathemis lydia) landed on the ragweed just ahead of me. I got a few pictures from where I was and then very slowly moved closer until I was able to get this one and a few like it before she flew away.

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Wasp

Photograph taken on Sunday, August 20, 2017 by Henry
Wasp

Wasp

I don’t know what sort of wasp this is and I’m sort of doubtful that I could identify it from this or the two other photos I took of it as it moved around the mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) this afternoon. It was a sort of lazy afternoon and I hung out with the wasps again, as I tend to do. If I’m going to be out on a day above 90°F, especially if I’m going to be in the sun on such a day, there’s a good chance it’s because I’m hanging with my insect friends. Otherwise, I head for the shade at the very least, if not for the air-conditioned indoors.

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Duskywing

Photograph taken on Saturday, August 19, 2017 by Henry
Duskywing

Duskywing

This little, dark butterfly was flitting about the black-eyed Susans this afternoon. It’s been quite warm and today was especially so, but the hot sun seems to be exactly what the little flying critters love. The mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum), the black-eyed Susans, (Rudbekia species), the tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis), the butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), and what’s left of the coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) were all thick with bees, wasps, flies, skippers, and butterflies. It was nice just to be there with them, hearing the faint buzz and seeing all the movement. This little fellow, one of the spread-wing skippers, took a little stalking to get pictures, but I think it was worth the effort. UPDATE: This has been identified as a wild indigo duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae).

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Cosmopepla lintneriana (Twice-stabbed Stink Bug)

Photograph taken on Friday, August 18, 2017 by Henry
Cosmopepla lintneriana (Twice-stabbed Stink Bug)

Cosmopepla lintneriana (Twice-stabbed Stink Bug)

I came across another new bug today (new to me, that is). This is the twice-stabbed stink bug (Cosmopepla lintneriana), so called because of the two red ‘wounds’ the apex of the scutellum. There were at least three of them on the American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) in our back garden, including the two shown here. I had a hard time photographing them because they kept crawling around to the underside of the branches and under the bunches of purple berries. My camera, with a 100mm macro lens and two off camera flashes is a little unwieldy and takes two hands to manage properly. So, I’d use one hand to scare the bugs onto the upper side of the branch and then let go to get the picture. By the time I had found them again through the viewfinder and focused on them, they were half way back to the underside of the branch.

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Oebalus pugnax (Rice Stink Bug)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 by Henry
Oebalus pugnax (Rice Stink Bug)

Oebalus pugnax (Rice Stink Bug)

We have had a relatively mild August this year. I don’t know if it’s any sort of record or where it stands in comparison to averages but it has definitely been on the cool side. Today, however, it was hot. I went out into the empty lot this afternoon and had trouble because there was standing water in a few places. Once I made my way to one of the drainage ponds I sat in the shade and watched the dragonflies darting around over the shallow water. I happened to see this little rice stink bug (Oebalus pugnax) on a blade of grass and got two photos before he flew away. This species has characteristic spikes at the front corners of their pronotum (sort of at the ‘shoulders’).

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Grass Spider (Agelenopsis species)

Photograph taken on Sunday, August 13, 2017 by Henry
Grass Spider (Agelenopsis species)

Grass Spider (Agelenopsis species)

The funnel weavers are out in force again. They appear about this time each year. Actually, they are a little earlier than usual this year, probably because of the uncommonly mild weather and the relatively large amount of rain we’ve had. They are really cool spiders, building horizontal, non-sticky webs. When an insect lands on the web, the spider rushes out and bites it and the takes it back into her funnel, an tube-like web structure. This is, I believe, a grass spider (Agelenopsis species), one of the funnel weavers in the family Agelenidae. These spiders are really shy and not at all aggressive. And they eat insects. What’s not to like?

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Thick-headed Fly

Photograph taken on Saturday, August 12, 2017 by Henry
Thick-headed Fly

Thick-headed Fly

When I took this picture I assumed it was a wasp. Evan after going to BugGuide.net for identification that’s what I thought. I mean, it has that wasp-waisted look. But I wasn’t able to find any wasps that matched. That’s because it isn’t a wasp, it’s a fly, a thick-headed fly (Family Conopidae) to be precise. I think it is probably Physocephala tibialis, but I’m not completely sure. Anyway, it’s a pretty little thing and I’m pretty happy with this picture, especially as it’s the first thick-headed fly I’ve seen (at least knowingly).

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Bee on Asclepias

Photograph taken on Friday, August 11, 2017 by Henry
Bee on Asclepias

Bee on Asclepias

I haven’t had a chance to look up this bee and I’m not sure this picture is good enough for a positive identification, in any case. There are a lot of little bees that look somewhat like this. This is the best of the pictures I got and it is still not very sharp. It’s a pretty little bee and I’m happy with the picture overall, though. I love the bright orange of the butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). It generally makes a nice contrast to the dark colors of bees. I didn’t take a lot of pictures today, though, so there were not a lot to choose from.

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Brookgreen Gardens and Lowcountry Zoo

Photograph taken on Tuesday, August 01, 2017 by Henry
Live Oak (<em>Quercus virginiana</em>)

Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)

A bunch of us went to Brookgreen Gardens today. Seth, Iris, and Tsai-Hong stayed until about 1:00 before moving on to the lowcountry zoon and then headed back to the beach. Cathy, Dorothy, Jonathan, Dot, and I had lunch and then did a bit more walking in the gardens before hitting the zoo. I took a lot of pictures of sculpture and a few of dragonflies and grasshoppers (the huge eastern lubber grasshopper, Romalea microptera). I really enjoy both the sculpture and the setting. It was hot today but not really hot by South Carolina in August standards. In the shade it was actually pretty pleasant. This first picture is of my favorite tree at Brookgreen gardens. It is in the corner of the Palmetto Garden and really is part of the Live Oak Allée that’s just across the wall. I think it’s magnificent.

Black-crowned Night-Heron (<em>Nycticorax nycticorax</em>)

Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Of course we also went to the lowcountry zoo where we saw black-crowned night-herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) as well as a few egrets and an ibis. The otters were very active and we enjoyed watching them swim around for a while. It was actually feeding time at the alligator pond but the alligator we saw must be well fed because he was pretty blasé about the whole thing.

After leaving Brookgreen, we drove to Murrill’s Inlet for an early dinner at Nance’s. Dorothy, Jonathan, and I shared a half bushel of steamed oysters while mom had soft-shell crab and Cathy had a crab cake.

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Melanoplus Species

Photograph taken on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 by Henry
<em>Melanoplus</em> Species

Melanoplus Species

It was a hot but beautiful day and I went out into the lot next to my office this afternoon. I saw and photographed a young white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), an eastern tailed-blue (Cupido comyntas), an eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens), and an eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica). As I sat next to a dried up drainage pond I watched grasshoppers moving around. I was able to get close enough to this one to get a pretty good photograph. This is one of over 260 Melanoplus species, which are spur-throated grasshoppers, subfamily Melanoplinae of the short-horned grasshoppers, family Acrididae. After I came back to my parking lot, I walked down to the pond and saw a pair of belted kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon) and got a pictures of one that’s good enough to confirm the sighting but not much better than that.

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Blow Fly on Monarda

Photograph taken on Monday, July 24, 2017 by Henry
Blow Fly on Monarda

Blow Fly on Monarda

I got a few insect photos today, including a few of large milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) on milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), an eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on buddleia flowers, an eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) on a coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and some sort of longlegged fly (family Dolichopodidae). Finally, I got some of this blow fly (family Calliphoridae) on scarlet beebalm (Monarda didyma). It’s not my favorite insect. In fact, I’d have to rank it in the bottom half rather than the top. I don’t mind wasps and bees in general but flies and particular what I consider to be the ‘annoying flies’ are in the negative side of the scale, along with mosquitoes and horse and deer flies. But their metallic green bodies are pretty cool, in spite of that.

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Cycnia tenera (Delicate Cycnia)

Photograph taken on Friday, July 21, 2017 by Henry
<em>Cycnia tenera</em> (Delicate Cycnia)

Cycnia tenera (Delicate Cycnia)

I went out to the empty lot next to my building this afternoon. I started by going through the woods on the lower part but then crossed the stream on a tree that conveniently fell across it. That saves me a bit of underbrush getting to the open, higher ground of the northeastern part of the lot. This part has only a few trees, so far, and is mostly filled with a thick covering of ragweed with milkweed and goldenrod scattered throughout. I happened to see this little moth, mostly white with a little orange on the leading edge of its wings. It is a delicate cycnia (Cycnia tenera) and is fairly shy. In the other two Cycnia species found in North America the orange or yellow on the wings is either absent (C. oregonensis) or is darker but doesnot extend to apex (C. collaris).

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Deer and Heron

Photograph taken on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 by Henry
Deer and Heron

Deer and Heron

I went out to the woods next to my building this afternoon, towards the end of the day. After wandering around there a while without finding much of interest, I went down towards the tiny pond on the other side of the building and came across this white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and great blue heron (Ardea herodias) sharing the watering hole together. The picture isn’t great but I’m happy I was able to get a picture of both of them before the both decided I had ruined the party and they left.

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Skipper

Photograph taken on Sunday, July 16, 2017 by Henry
Skipper on <em>Verbena bonariensis</em>

Skipper on Verbena bonariensis

The skippers are out in force these days. I got one picture with three of them on a single bunch of flowers. They move around a lot, making it a little harder to get a good picture but there are so many of them you can almost pick a flower and wait for one to land on it. They are somewhat plain as butterflies go. The butterflies and skippers are grouped together in the superfamily Papilionoidea under the order Lepidoptera. The other superfamilies (there are quite a few) are all moths.

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Eristalis tranversa (Transverse Flower Fly)

Photograph taken on Friday, July 14, 2017 by Henry
Eristalis tranversa (transverse flower fly)

Eristalis tranversa (transverse flower fly)

I was off work yesterday and today, getting ready for the gathering coming up tomorrow. I still took a break each day to get pictures. Before I had gotten very far into the backyard this afternoon I spotted this transverse flower fly (Eristalis tranversa) on a black-eyed Susan Rudbekia sp.). It’s a pretty little fly and the color pattern on its abdomen is quite distinctive. They especially seem to like the black-eyed Susans with which they match quite well. I didn’t have very good lighting for most of the pictures I took but managed to get a few (including this one) with a single on-camera flash that turned out a bit better.

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Melittia cucurbitae (Squash Vine Borer)

Photograph taken on Thursday, July 13, 2017 by Henry
Melittia cucurbitae (Squash Vine Borer)

Melittia cucurbitae (Squash Vine Borer)

I went out to take pictures of a carpenter bee this afternoon but before I got to where she was, I saw this moth, a squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae), on the Herrenhausen oregano (Origanum laevigatum ‘Herrenhausen’). It’s not a terribly good specimen. Much of the orange on its abdomen has been rubbed off, but it’s a pretty distinctive little clearwing moth (family Sesiidae). I got some good photos of the carpenter bee, as well, but since I’m almost certain to have more photos of those I decided to post this one instead.

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Oncopeltus fasciatus (Large Milkweed Bug)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, July 12, 2017 by Henry
Oncopeltus fasciatus (Large Milkweed Bug)

Oncopeltus fasciatus (Large Milkweed Bug)

The butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is in bloom and it’s a lovely, orange accent in the back of the garden. I’d be happy to have more of this, either the standard orange or the lovely, yellow variety. I’d also like to get some Asclepias curassavica, known as blood flower, although that’s not winter hardy anywhere near this far north. It can, apparently, be grown easily as an annual from seed. I might also try to get some Asclepias purpurascens, commonly called purple milkweed. It’s a native and I am pretty sure I’ve seen it at the farm, so I could dig some up there or get some seeds.

The large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) is a common visitor to butterfly weed (one of the milkweed family) and is particularly well suited for hiding among the flowers of A. tuberosa.

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Cupido comyntas (Eastern Tailed-Blue)

Photograph taken on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 by Henry
Cupido comyntas (Eastern Tailed-Blue)

Cupido comyntas (Eastern Tailed-Blue)

This little butterfly, an eastern tailed-blue (Cupido comyntas) is a fairly common visitor to our garden and can be seen throughout the region. It’s not the easiest butterfly to photograph, partly because of it’s diminutive size (it’s small) and partly because it’s a fairly shy critter and doesn’t like being approached. But this one let me get close enough for a pretty good shot. It was late enough in the day that the light wasn’t as good as I’d have liked and this was taken with the aid of the camera’s on-board flash. It isn’t the best lighting for small subjects but in this case it worked out reasonably well.

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Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on Buddleia

Photograph taken on Sunday, July 09, 2017 by Henry
Tiger Swallowtail (<em>Papilio glaucus</em>) on Buddleia

Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on Buddleia

Once the buddleia comes into bloom, which has happened in the last week or so, it’s a rare day when there isn’t at least one tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) fluttering around the yard. They aren’t anywhere as near as common and the many skippers (family Hesperiidae) that we have by the dozens or even as the cabbage whites (Pieris rapae), but pretty common. And of course they are much more striking. I particularly like then when the sun is on them or even shining through them and they are against a clear, blue afternoon sky, as this one is. The color on the upper side of the hindwings identifies this as a female, just in the act of taking off from the flower.

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Cerceris fumipennis

Photograph taken on Friday, July 07, 2017 by Henry
Cerceris fumipennis

Cerceris fumipennis

After taking the picture of the lady beetle larva in the woods, I crossed the stream on a fallen tree trunk. I worked my way from there through a fairly dense area of brambles and small trees to the slope that leads to what I call the uplands part of the empty lot. This is about 30 feet higher than the lowlands across the stream and it is mostly clear of trees. It is filled with ragweed and milkweed with a few empty spots that are almost barren, with just bare clay which sometimes holds standing water and other times is baked into a cracked, hard surface. In one of those empty spots, I followed this wasp, which is Cerceris fumipennis, an apoid wasp (Apoidea) in the family Crabronidae. It landed and disappeared into this little hole in the ground. I figured it would eventually come out again so I got down and waited. I was rewarded for my patience when he appeared at the entrance and was able to get a half dozen shots off before he flew off into the distance.

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