This Stinks Too!

The species, Verbesina encelioides, stunk according to Shirley. While I can smell it, I certainly don’t think it smells that bad. In fact, my olfactory instrument say the Mexican Plums are really what smell bad. LOL. So the Verbesina encelioides goes by several common names including Cowpen Daisy, Golden Crownbeard, Butter Daisy to name a few. Most of the time I hear it called Cowpen Daisy in my neck of the woods(cowpens). Often found in pastures with livestock. Additionally it can be in many soils types that are disturbed. Not mentally but physically like think hooves disturbed. ;-).

Jeanne and I parked along the road to visit a unit on the grasslands on Monday. And this nice little patch of Cowpen Daisy called me over.
Some petals were munched on and others had dropped their petals. The petals are 3-lobed.

A side view!
A Pyralidae or a Crambidae moth (tentative IDs) stopped by.
A spider also was waiting for a flyby meal.

A Nursery Web Spider (Pisaurina mira) (tentative ID) was down on a leaf. Nursery Web spiders carry their eggs under their abdomens unlike a Wolf Spider. The Wolf Spiders drag the egg case behind themselves.
A fly had certainly been some spider’s meal!

The most colorful find was this Basilodes chrysopis. No common name so I feel I am allowed to name it the Cowpen Daisy Moth. 😉

A beautiful pale blotched head makes it easy to see ocelli (simple eyes)!
Very colorful!

So the Cowpen Daisies was only our first find! More to come!

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Keep looking!

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

6 Comments

    1. I had only looked in BugGuide, but Wagner’s Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern NA calls it Gilded Seedcropper too. But I won’t remember that. Ha Ha!

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