Tiny pink

Awhile ago, I went outside to check on the Wildscape after last night's rains and spotted this tiny moth (approximately 3/8 inches) nearly camouflaged on a salvia bloom. Had to go get my camera, of course. I believe it's a southern pink moth, also called inornate pyrausta moth (Pyrausta inornatalis).

Great day to be a bee!

It was a challenge, but I snagged a few photos of this busy guy (Anthophora sp.), gathering pollen among the salvias.

 

Found treasure!

At least to me, I've found treasure right in our Wildscape. 

We'd been letting this little plant grow in a back-yard bed. I thought it was cow-itch vine. James was skeptical about letting it stay. As it grew, it branched out like shrub, not a vine. Cordelia, a friend who came by for a garden tour yesterday, shook her head and said no, it definitely wasn't cow-itch. I agreed and peered closer at it. Then what the heck was it?

I took a photo and sent it to plant expert Jerry Stacy with our Highland Lakes chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists. "That's aromatic sumac," he replied. "It will be a pretty shrub that provides great bird food."

AWESOME!

According to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Plant Database, Rhus aromatica is larval host for the banded hairstreak (Satyrium calanus) and red-banded hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops).

"In spring, fragrant sumac flowers appear before the foliage," the account states. "This shrub turns fall colors of red, yellow and orange. The flower is a nectar source for adult butterflies. Fragrant sumac colonizes to form thickets and looks best when planted en mass or in drift-like plantings as it occurs in nature. It is fast growing, generally pest and disease-free, and drought-tolerant. Colonies are often single-sexed, formed from a single, suckering parent. Only female plants produce flowers and berries."

Oh, please be a female! Please please please!

Thanks, Jerry! I love finding treasures in our Wildscape. 
 

An elegant roach

Last night's rains blessed us with more than 3 inches! Not to mention this interesting insect that's presently latched onto an exterior wall of our garage. I spotted a smaller one, too....

I checked with Bugguide.net, and the insect appears to be a Boll's sand roach (Arenivaga bolliana). A little further Googling led me to Insects of the Texas Lost Pines, which says that this species occurs only in Texas. "Boll's sand cockroach is the largest and most commonly seen cockroach of the forest," the book states. "A better common name would be the 'elegant roach.'"

The species does NOT infest homes and is not considered a pest, my dear James.  :-)

 

Blooms galore!

The sky's dark, and more rain's on the way. Thank you, Lord! I decided I'd go outside and shoot some photos before everything gets wet and soggy.

Cowpen daisy, upclose

Cowpen daisy

Salvias

Salvias

Trailing lantanas and salvias....beautiful!!

Annual asters (Symphyotrichum subulatum)

Mexican bush sage

'Indigo Spires' salvia

Firebush

Salvias salvias salvias

I heard a noise, something talking to me, while I was shooting. I looked up, and at first I thought the squirrel was climbing down to visit me. But it didn't.

Gray scrub sage and 'Henry Duelberg' salvia

Salvia, green santolina, four-nerve daisy, lemon verbena, mealycup sage

Turk's cap and mistflower

Fall aster

Shrimp plant

Galena salvia

View of back yard from the side

Climbing snapdragon vine (my new favorite native!)

Salvias

Drummond's woodsorrel

Salvia 'Otahal'

Inland sea oats

Salvias

My fun stock tank pond for a grand finale!

When a snake gets mad

Depends on the species on how dangerous a mad one can be. Still, snakes don't scare me. So when I spotted a long rough green snake (Opheodrys aestivus) stretched across the ground in our front yard, I dropped my broom and immediately picked it up. Naturally, I wanted to show my find to James.

It, of course, did not share the same goal. It wanted out of my hands NOW. Stubbornly, I held onto it while James dashed off for his camera. In the meantime, the green snake writhed and turned and struggled to get away from me. Then....

...it latched onto my index finger. HARD! "Does that hurt?" James asked, alarmed. No, I replied. The snake's jaws squeezed tighter around my finger. "Are you OK? Are you sure?" James asked. I nodded. 

"I'm taking it to the back yard," I added. Tight as a vice grip, the snake held on.
 

I figured as soon as I let go of the mad snake, it'd let go of me. Fair trade off. Gently, I set it down in the turk's cap. Sure enough, the snake released my finger and slithered up a branch. "I'm sorry!" I said. It just glared at me.
 

A bit later, I returned to the turk's cap, where I found the snake, looking a bit bewildered, wound atop some leafy branches. "I'm going to move you," I said, "real fast." Which I did. Before it could find another finger, I transferred my green friend to an elbow-bush thicket a few yards away. Much better! The thick foliage completely concealed the snake. I couldn't see one sign of it. 

But I bet it saw me. And I bet it was still mad. 

At me.

Nature knows what it's doing

Yesterday evening, I was walking back from across the street, where I'd been watering our neighbors' potted plants. Like I sometimes do, I stopped and peered at plants in the adjacent vacant lot along the fence line. Maybe a little cenizo was coming up beneath the adult. It'd sure be cool to have one in our Wildscape. No luck, though. Darn it.
 

Then I looked at the cenizo leaves. A caterpillar! First, I thought it was a crimson patch larva (Chlosyne janais), which host on flame acanthus and other members of the acanthus family. I looked around other leaves but couldn't spot any more caterpillars. But what was a crimson patch doing on a cenizo? 

Back at my desk, I looked up cenizo (Leucophyllum frutescens) and found two species that it hosts: theona checkerspot (Chlosyne theona) and Calleta silkmoth (Eupackardia calleta). No, I concluded, my caterpillar wasn't either one of those. Perhaps a butterfly mama had made a mistake and laid her egg on the wrong host plant? Or maybe I'd observed a new species on the cenizo, one that hadn't been documented before?

HA! Dumb me!

Like Mother Nature would make a mistake? Hardly! I went back to looking at images of Chlosyne theona larvae and quickly realized that my caterpillar friend on the cenizo WAS indeed a Chlosyne theona.

But just now, I also realized that my initial theory of finding a crimson patch wasn't too far off. The two butterflies are in the same genus: Chlosyne.

Maybe I'm not so dumb after all.

Theona checkerspot larva (Chlosyne theona)