Welcome to my nature blog! I love sharing my photos of North Texas! I will keep looking out and hope you do too.
Comments welcome. Thank you, Mary
I wondered if this Bull Snake (Pituophis catenifer) had recently shed its skin. It looked bright. Some say the Bull Snake is called a Bull Snake because of the ridge between the eyes. This maybe the best look I have had of that feature. Turn the sound up. It had finally had enough of me….
Harvestman(Eumesosoma roeweri) Notice the red mites on its several of its legs. Mites do this to get a lift to a new place. I had read about this sometime ago so I was so excited to see this! The difference between true spiders (Araneae – order) and Harvestmans (Opiliones – order) are that Harvestmans have…
Not getting much rain here, mostly just light to heavy mist. Misty on the prairie The above two photos are of Western Horse Nettle (Solanum dimidiatum), but I wonder why the water droplets did not stick at least to the wrinkly ones? Eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii) Funnel spider web The mist did not stop the water striders…
Stink bug (Pentatomidae) Painted Lady or American Lady, it was really beat up. Monarch Monarch Honey Bee Dark Flower Scarab (Euphoria sepulcralis) All the above on the Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) Keep looking!
Sleep Daisy (Xanthisma texanum var drummondii) not awake yet. They woke up around 11:30am But some still are sleeping The morning dew highlights this Bowl and Doily Weaver or Cup N Saucer spider (Frontinella pyramitela) web. Only two species in North America and the other one is only in Arizona. The spider is about 4mm…
Hazy day again. Glad the temp is pleasant. This is a Flesh Fly (Sarcophagidae) on blackberry (Rubus oklahomas) leaves. Larvae: many species are necrophagous, but some feed in mammalian tissues or parasitize other arthropods (bees, cicadas, termites, grasshoppers/locusts, millipedes), earthworms, or snails. Adults feed on various sugar-containing materials such as nectar, sap, fruit juices and…
It was a nice day for a drive in Montague County. The air was a bit hazy but the temp was wonderful. View of the hazy weather. A pond slider was really taking in the view. Maybe it was enjoy watching us as we were watching it. We also saw at another creek, 10 or…
Don’t think I have ever notice a katydid (Orchelimum) of this color before. Ornate Box Turtle eating a grasshopper. Yum! I always take a top shot to compare to old photos of mine to see if it has been here at my house before. I last saw this one on Sept 24, 2016. Can’t get enough…
Part II is about all the other stuff that was found on Tuesday, Sept 15th. Millipedes Diplopoda (class) have two legs per segment True Bug (Heteroptera- suborder) Don’t you love those eyes! Underside Just found out from BugGuide what this is…Big-Eyed Toad Bug (Gelastocoris oculatus) What a good name! Texas skeleton (Lygodesmia texana) plant…
We found some amazing mushrooms and of course I can’t ID most of them. Maybe someday, just not today. For now I just trying to match the photos and what I can understand in the description to match. I have been relying on the book Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast States by Alan and Arleen…