Monday, June 21, 2021

I'll have a four o'clock, please

In October 2013, I spotted a new-to-me native growing on city easement on the west side of our property. It was a narrowleaf four o'clock (Mirabilis linearis). Lo and behold, two years later the species volunteered in a back yard bed! I was happy.... But not so much now. LOL! This species RESEEDS like crazy! 

Anyway, I was collecting seeds yesterday for the LBJ Wildflower Center and spied this teeny tiny little bug nymph on a four o'clock flower. I ran for my macro lens that fits my iPhone. iNaturalist identified it to genus: Catorhintha. I looked the genus up on Bugguide.net and saw photos of similar bugs also feeding on Mirabilis (four o'clocks). So this genus must largely just occur on four o'clocks. How cool is that?!




An older Catorhintha sp. nymph

Adult

2 comments:

Regina Levoy said...

Wow, those are amazing pictures! I wasn't aware we had a native four o'clock species---now I know!

Sheryl Smith-Rodgers said...

They’re pushy too!

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