Yard butterflies and some moths

[asilidman]

Still very few butterflies around which is too bad given the plentiful flowers. Today we had a crisp new Hayhurst's Scallopwing as well as the usual
 E. Tiger Swallowtail 1
 Cabbage Whites 2
Cloudless Sulphur 1
Southern Broken-dash 1
 Pearl Crescent 2
 E. Tailed Blue 2

We also have 5 Black Swallowtail caterpillars on our bronze fennel and 2 E. Tiger Sw. caterpillars on the black cherry.

It seems to be a big year for Variable Oak caterpillars...good bird food I imagine...and we have seen several species of hornworms including this Achemon Sphinx hornworm which Elizabeth Sartain found on the butterfly count at Camp Robinson. The best recent Lepidoptera sighting for us though was an Arkansas Clearwing, Synanthedon arkansasensis,  which Norman spotted at Camp Robinson. The species was first named from a specimen taken at Devil's Den State Park in 1973. It is a small wasp mimic. Bugguide only had pics of the species from other states so now Arkansas is properly represented with a pic of its namesake clearwing. Now I'll see if I can attach the pics.

Cheryl

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[Admin]

Neat bugs! I'm gonna have to start paying a bit more attention to the "bird food".

[asilidman]

When you phrase it that way people really do start seeing a reason for the insects...of course there are many others....but now I'm going to use the "bird food" phrase often when we teach the Insects in the Scheme of Things class in the Fall, it will probably resonate with folks more than the pollination services, detritus clean-up services, soil-making services, undertaker services and insect control services segments we teach!

Cheryl
P.S. I just this minute got an e-mail from a friend who decided not to have her yard sprayed ever again after I told her about how birds need insects and not poisoned ones! A lot of people actually never make the connections.