A caterpillar and some beetles

Snowberry clearwing caterpillar

James spotted this beautiful caterpillar last night in some native lantana. Thanks to our handy Caterpillars of Eastern North America, I can pronounce this as a snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis). I wrote about this cool moth species in the June 2010 issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. It's a pretty moth that acts like a hummingbird around flowers.


In the back yard, we've got two large holes, which we suspect are ox beetles. Two years ago, we identified one in a corner of our back-yard Wildscape (see August 20, 2008, and October 21, 2008).

UPDATE May 22, 2010–We were outside a night or so ago with a flashlight and YES I caught the tail end of an ox beetle, bumbling back into his hole. They are VERY clumsy.