Blooms etc. in the Meadow

Goldeneyes (new!)

Native lantana

Horseherb and sida (orange)

Stiff greenthread

Drummond's woodsorrel

Baby's breath aster (new!)

White evolvulus

Crow poison

Prairie verbena

White heath aster (Can you spot two large flies?)

Common mestra

Water drops on a bluebonnet

Also blooming but not pictured: yellow wood sorrel, false nightshade and Texas vervain

Tarantula child

My thanks to Alyssa, one of my daughter's long-time friends (and I've known her, too, since she was itty bitty) for bringing by this Texas tan (Aphonopelma anax). This was my first time EVER to see a juvenile! She found the tarantula in an upstairs bedroom at home. After our visit, she said she planned to release it outside on her family's property. Thanks much, Alyssa! 

Bryophytes continued

Last October, I learned so much at the Texas Master Naturalist state conference. I especially enjoyed Dale Kruse's "Bryophytes, the Forest Beneath Your Feet." During his sessions, I learned about mosses, liverworts and hornwort (see my Oct. 31, 2012, post, "When a light bulb goes off..."). Later, I added a small patch of moss from our yard to a terrarium that I keep in my office. 

In the photos above and below, you can barely see the moss patch in the right lower quadrant of the glass container. I also stuck in some bird's nest fungus that I couldn't bear to toss away.

Several weeks ago, I rescued several large patches of the same moss from our back yard and relocated them to a new area. Hey, I guess I need to make a name tag for it! Isn't nature just cool? 

Bluebonnet sightings!

 We've got bluebonnet seedlings growing in the Meadow, folks!

New moth species

I snapped only one image of this mystery moth. Thanks to Maury Heiman on Bugguide.net for identifying it for me: velvetbean caterpillar moth (Anticarsia gemmatalis).

Third egg sac

Yes, our argiope spider mom in the back yard laid her third egg sac! Yesterday, I shot a photo of her web, lit up with sunshine. The strands looked like spun gold. Then I got a close-up of her big abdomen. I knew "her time" was close! This morning, I looked at my office window, and I didn't see her on her web. That meant.....

I walked outside to look. Well, I looked and looked some more, like around the bird bath and under the bird bath. Finally, I looked UP. WAY UP! There she was, guarding her egg sac–which she laid during the night–way up under the roof eaves. So ALL THREE of her egg sacs are attached to the house. Great. Out in plain sight. Good job, mom! :-)  

Sick caterpillars....NOT

The other day, I spotted what I thought were "melting" caterpillars on our rue plants. So I contacted a biologist who specializes in insect viruses and wrote him that I had some sick caterpillars to mail him. Imagine my embarrassment yesterday when I returned for a closer look and realized that we have a new species in the garden! These are giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) larvae! Well, don't they look sickish to YOU? Actually, they resemble bird droppings, another one of nature's cool camo defenses. 

Like black swallowtails, giant swallowtails also host on rue.

 Touch a head, and the osmeterium (scent gland) pops out. Neat-o!