Another adventure

Every new bird, every different insect I spot piques my curiosity, spurns my eagerness to LEARN more. I want to know the name for whatever and everything I see in our Wildscape!

So today when I saw this strange-looking wasp, I worked to get a photo. Every time I clicked the shutter, the thing disappeared! It seemed to feel or sense whenever my camera snapped a photo, and it'd take off! Finally, I got a few decent pictures, enough to identify the species, I hope.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 7, 2016 Below is a Texas wasp moth (Horama panthalon), also observed November 5, 2016.



I glanced up toward the huge oak and saw what looked like wasps flying around a hole. Mmm, the same species as I just shot? Meanwhile, I saw one on the ground and took a photo of it. No, it was a different species, I thought as I followed it up the oak.

Then I glanced back up and saw.....


A fox squirrel peering out the same hole! I quickly aimed my camera at him, and he didn't budge. Snap! Snap Snap! Still, the squirrel didn't mind. He also didn't seem to care that a few wasps were buzzing around his head. One even clambered into the hole over his head. At first, I wondered if I needed to get up there and rescue a sick squirrel....

I took some more photos, then he disappeared. Back into the hole.

End of adventure.

Meanwhile, I'm on a quest to get that mystery wasp identified.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008–UPDATE–Entomologist Mike Quinn says the top critter is a Texas wasp moth (Horama panthlon texana). I'd never heard of one!