Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Insects I think I took this shot, but I told Leecy she probably took this picture just to make her feel good (she may have taken this picture as she was experimenting with my camera). We have lots of Honeybees right now all over the garden. Some are on the flowers, and some tend to have…  The Common Green Darner Dragonfly that I placed on the Zinnia yesterday evening was still here this morning. He was covered in a light dew and the light was just starting to fall on our second Zinnia garden.  Here’s something you don’t see every day. We were cleaning our Butterfly enclosures this evening when this large Dragonfly flew right in there. I don’t know if he was old, confused, tired, or what, but he just stayed right there so I went and picked him up. After he stayed in the palm of my…  I need to get a few things off my chest (actually just one thing). This drought. It’s driving me nuts. This whole weather thing is driving me nuts actually. On the East Coast they’re flooding. Down here in Texas we’re drying up. Is this the effects of global warming? What will this wacky weather mean… Okay, I’ve done it. I’ve cataloged most all my books. I still have some computer books at work I need to catalog, but for this blog I think I’m complete. I’ve organized the books into sections and I’ll also make the list available for download should you choose to keep it as a reference for…  The Purple Martin parents are working full time feeding their young. One thing I’ve noticed this year compared to previous years, is that the insects are smaller. I haven’t seen them bring many Dragonflies which has been their favorite food in years past. This year the most common insect seem to be Grasshoppers which the…  I could tell we were going to have problems with the Monarch Butterfly Chrysalises in the Butterfly Enclosure several days ago. All of the Chrysalises were a yellow brown color and didn’t look too healthy. Whether these were infected or parasitized Chrysalises, I’m not sure, maybe a combination of both. You can see the Chrysalises…  Our Sassafras tree is really putting out some nice, soft leaves. I was casually checking the leaves to see if any Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars were feeding. I then saw this small insect, but I have no idea what it is It was definitely eating the leaf, but I don’t even know where to look to…  It was a cloudy, overcast, somewhat windy day, so not the best day to take pictures. Leecy pointed out this Carpenter Bee (I think that’s what it is, not a Bumblebee) flying around the Wildflowers. I wasn’t really expecting much from the pictures, but I’m actually quite pleased with how they turned out. While I…  In addition to the Cedar Waxwings behaving in an interesting way, I also witnessed a Monarch Butterfly do something I’ve never seen before. Today, I released one of the Monarchs that eclosed a couple of days ago. The Butterfly got a nice draft of wing, and gently floated to our Maple tree. That’s when it…  Thanks to Sheryl for posting a comment and identifying this insect. This appears to be a Mydas Fly, and they are not very common, or at least not from what I could tell from doing a little bit of research. They are listed as beneficial insects on this page. The authors of the page linked…  Poor Butterflies. Today was a beautiful day, but it was a little chilly for Butterflies. I literally saw two Monarchs drop out of the sky. These poor Butterflies were doing all they could to warm up in the sun, but the high was only 68 degrees. They’d be flying around, then that cold North wind…  We had a total of 4 Monarchs hatch today; 3 females and 1 male. The 3 female Monarchs flew away as soon as they were released but the male Monarch stayed for a while on the Purple Coneflower. Of course, life is not easy for a Monarch Butterfly, and while this Butterfly was just trying…  This Loofah plant is really loved by the pollinating insects. It attracts all kinds of Bees, Butterflies, Ants, and Wasps (not too many of these fortunately). The Ants that are attracted to this plant are not Fire Ants, and don’t appear to be very aggressive. I need to investigate what type of Ants these are. …  This is a Common Green Darner Dragonfly. According to the book I utilize for identifying Dragonflies (Stokes Beginners Guide to Dragonflies), the female has the distinctive bulls-eye on the forehead. In contrast, the Male does not have the distinctive bulls-eye on the forehead, and the thorax is bright green with a blue abdomen. |
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