Look, a firefly?

 Look, a firefly, I told myself as I was passing the plateau goldeneye yesterday in our back yard. But darn it, the insect flew away. I was VERY disappointed. Then another one (or the same one) landed on a goldeneye leaf that was within easy reach. Bingo–I snapped at least five photos and shared my observation with iNaturalist. Later, I was looking at the photos. Hmm, those antennae sure were long. Longer than what a firefly has… 

In the meantime, someone on iNaturalist IDed my “firefly”–Dylobolus rotundicollis (Mecas rotundicollis on Bugguide.net), a firefly-mimicking longhorn beetle! This beetle even has a luminescent-mimicking abdomen. It’s believed that the larvae feed on the roots and stems of asters and other members of Asteraceae. Like plateau goldeneye in our yard. Amazing!

Some milkweed math

This afternoon, I decided that I'd like to know about how many seeds are in an antelope-horns (Asclepias asperula) seedpod. I bet I could have googled that question and found out. But I wanted to find out myself. At first, I tried counting the seeds out in a dish. Nope, I'd lose track. So I went in the house and counted out seeds in groups of 10. The above photo is 297 seeds harvested from two pods. The photo below shows them in a bag.

Below are seeds from one pod, which produced 149 seeds. The next photo shows them in the bag.

Now take a look at the seeds I've harvested from the Meadow (photo below)! I have one pod left out there, and I've given away some seeds. I'd say this is the best production year EVER. 

My conclusion: One healthy antelope-horns pod produces roughly 150 seeds. 

P.S. Check out the close-ups below that I took of some milkweed seeds. 

 

 

 

Update July 3, 2021 I counted another pod for grins. Came up with 126 seeds: 

Another aggravating native

You KNOW how much I love native plants. But THIS one recently got under my skin even more. Wild petunia (Ruellia nudiflora) is a resident native in our gardens. In other words, it was here before we were. It reseeds readily and shows up nearly everywhere. Sometimes I leave it alone and let it be. But sometimes I pull. A few days ago, I decided numerous ruellias needed to go in a front-yard bed. Alas, I'd let them grow too long! Look at these ROOTS! Oh, my goodness! Later, I spotted some HUGE ruellias in another area where I'd rather them not be. So now I know I have a big pulling project ahead of me. Heavy sigh.....  Sometimes it's a challenge to manage my native plant friends. I bet you can relate.

Mealybugs NOT

Mystery on Wes' plant

"Do you have any idea of what's growing on this plant?" my neighbor Wesley M. messaged the other day.

I peered at the photo he sent. "I think they're mealybugs," I replied. "We've got them on a lot of plants, too."

NOT, Sheryl.

Of course, I had to go out and double check. I didn't want to spread inaccurate information. In our yard, I'd seen a LOT of white stuff on different plants the past few weeks. Just mealybugs, I thought to myself. But just because I assumed they were mealybugs didn't mean that they were. 

 And they WEREN'T.

When I touched one, it HOPPED off! Say WHAT?!

Good ol' iNaturalist helped me out when I posted an observation. "Possibly citrus flatid planthopper or some sort of planthopper / treehopper / leafhopper nymph in their early instars," kip_lary wrote. 

That's IT!

Citrus flatid planthoppers (Metcalfa pruinosa) gets their common name from the fact that they're often found on citrus plants. Metcalfa pruinosa is the only species of its Metcalfa genus that occurs in Texas. In August 2018, I found an adult in our yard. This year, we have more white fluff on plants than I remember in the past. Are they hurting the plants? No, according to what I read.

And in my feeble defense, the white, waxy material made by these bug nymphs are often mistaken for mealybugs. Cottony-cushion scale, too.

Adult 2018

In our yard, I found them on Engelmann daisies, 'Eyelash' salvia, Texas nightshade and Mexican hats, to name only a few examples.

"Infestations originate from an adult that lays its eggs inside the stems of host plants the year before," Mike Merchant states in "Insects in the City. "Nymphs hatch in March-April and take close to two months to develop. There is reportedly only one generation per year, and adults are most commonly seen now, in June.  

Those filaments

While I was photographing planthoppers, this little guy would move away from his/her bare perch on a Mexican hat stem, then slide back onto it. I couldn't get a good photo of the behavior so I shot this short video. Funny! P.S. THANK YOU, Wes, for asking the question!

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

Me and the fluff

This is my life after supper these days .... separating antelope-horn seeds from the fluff and trying to keep the mosquitos away by swinging at the same time.

Milkweed seed harvest underway

This spring/summer season has to be THE best yet for antelope-horns (Asclepias asperula) seed production in our Meadow! The pods are long and robust. I can't even begin to bag all of them, but I'm doing my best. The gauze bags keep the hungry milkbugs out and the seeds contained when the pods bust open. All I do is clip the stem when I'm ready to harvest. Then I sort the seeds from the fluff while the pod's still inside the bag. Very therapeutic! (Thank goodness our neighbors "get" me!)

UPDATE JULY 21, 2021

I harvested a bagful of seed!