To the Meat

Do you have a nature bucket list? I do.

Purpletop (Tridens flavus) has not quite started to bloom. It is the host plant for a caterpillar called the Purpletop Sun Moth (Heliocheilus lupatus). The Purpletop Sun Moth cats will show up soon.
Well not a Purpletop Sun Moth cat but a crab spider.
Nudging it a bit and it took to this pose.
Looking under a bent blade I saw that it had been chewed on. Oh wow, finally a grass skipper (Hesperiinae) larva! A check mark for my nature bucket list!
Indeed I was tickled pink! Ahh, so now I was pumped to look at more of the Purpletop grass.
A couple of black aphids were there.
A second grass skipper (Hesperiinae)! Whoa this was fantastic! It was the white silk that caught my eye where the blade was rolling inwards. This little one was maybe 3 mm!

It was working hard swaying its head back and forth. I wish I could tell you the species of the two grass skippers (Hesperiinae). However in the Wagner guide it says the only reliable way to know for sure is to raise them. I didn’t have a container to bring them home.

I had always wanted to see exactly what the titmouse was doing to the seed. And now finally I have. It just pecks the heck out of the seed. Chickadees do the same as titmice. At first the titmouse was facing me. Then by the time I started taking the video it was not facing me any longer. šŸ¤·šŸ»ā€ā™€ļø

So finally two things off my nature bucket list, the larvae of a grass skipper and how the heck the titmouse gets to the meat. šŸ™‚

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Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know

8 Comments

  1. That grass skipper is so tiny – it’s a wonder you discovered it. It’s wonderful how much you found on the purple top. Super videos!

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