New sphinx moth!

I was shooting photos this evening and happened onto a sphinx moth, nectaring on our shrimp plants. I snagged this terrible image, but it was good enough for someone on Bugguide.net to ID it as a Titan sphinx (Aellopos titan). 

Awesome–now we've had FOUR sphinx species in our Wildscape! White-lined (Hyles lineata), Amphion floridensis, snowberry clearing (Hemaris diffinis) and now the Titan. 

UPDATE–My sighting was confirmed by Butterflies and Moths of North America!

Gray skies, fall color

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).