Welcome!

Welcome to austinagrodolce … My family and I garden with more intention and enthusiasm than allocated budget or overall design plan. It shows. Wildlife populations don't seem to notice our lack of cohesive design, they just like the native plants here. It seems by growing local we've thrown out a welcome mat. Occasionally, we're surprised at who (and what) shows up.



Showing posts with label Snout Butterfly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snout Butterfly. Show all posts

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Fly Overs and Hangers On

Continuing my efforts to record not just what is in bloom here, but who my visitors are.  In no particular order...
Orange Sulphur - perhaps a Sleepy Orange Sulphur (Eurema nicippe) Update:  Now believe this to be an Orange-barred Sulphur (Phoebis philea).
Snout butterfly (Libythean bachmanii) Their closed wings afford them camouflage as "dead leaves".
Teeny-tine crab spider (aka Flower Spider) Thomisidae, possibly misumessus?
Syrphid Fly (Palpada vinetorum) on Pyracantha blooms
Crab spider - Thomisidae
Tumbling Flower Beetle - named for it's behavior when netted.  It is black - the "color spots" are bits of clinging pollen from the Primrose blossoms.  
So very noisy overhead - four small planes flying in formation one way....
...then heading right back the other direction.
First Red Admiral Butterfly for the season (Vanessa atalanta)
Paper wasps - these had to go - they were building too close to the front door.
I originally thought this was Palpita kimballi but they don't occur in Texas.  Turns out this ghostly visitor resting on the coral yucca stalk is Stemorrahges costata.
Sleepy Orange  Orange-barred Sulphur and Crab Spider time-share.  Bees reportedly won't land on a flower that has anything obviously unflowerlike inside.  Some of these spiders can change color to "hide" while hunting, and will hold their long front legs out to mimic stamen filaments.