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
This Texas Spiny Lizard decided it was warm enough this afternoon to be out and about. Closeup Five-banded Thynnid wasp (Myzinum quinquecinctum) on the Fall Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides) Cardinal feather weirdly stuck on the tree in this upright position. Mint-loving Pyrausta (Pyrausta acrionalis) Found this little guy (1cm or 3/8in.) hiding by my backdoor…
I know there is a lot of frass in the national news these days, but this frass (frass is insect poop) I have been waiting for this fall. This is under two of our Bois D’arc trees (Maclura pomifera). The fatter one is a sphinx caterpillar’s frass. The host plant for the Hagen’s Sphinx (Ceratomia…
Every day, twice a day, the local Canada Geese fly by first one way, then back. The flock has grown from just two in the spring to about 35 now. Eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii) Meshweb weaver spider and insect prey A hundred is my guesstimate of the millipedes on my backporch. Closeup Corn Earworm (Helicoverpa zea)…
Yesterday, after we climbed out of the creek bed, we walked along the top of the mesa in the prairie. So the following are a few things that capture my eye on the top of the mesa. Gayfeather (Liatris mucronata) with a Meshweb weaver (Dictynidae) web under the blooms. Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) on Gayfeather. We…
Every year the Native Plant Society of Texas recognizes organizations and individuals. The Shirley Lusk Memorial, honors a citizen scientist for collecting and preserving Texas native plants for public education by providing outstanding contribution of herbarium voucher specimens. Jeff Quayle is recognized this year for his collection of over 1000 herbarium specimens stored at the…
The morning started off with some cool clouds. Just love the patterns. Ailanthus Webworm Moth (Atteva aurea) Five-banded Thynnid Wasp (Myzinum quinquecinctum) This is a Wilson’s wood-nymph moth (Xerociris wilsonii) caterpillar. It is the 30th record in the US and a new record for Wise County. Last year, Jeanne found one on her place in Montague…
Visibility was 1/8 mile this morning. Great morning to see the meshweb weavers (Dictynidae) webs. They make a plain framework of an irregular mess over foliage, flowers, and dead stalks of plants. This ant hill made me think a rock formation in the Southwest. They had a side entrance so not many of the ants…
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…
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…
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…