Our garden is often visited by a variety of insects. This is important as they pollinate the plants. The most common visitors are bees and wasps. But there are also pests that eat the plants. Well, yesterday we had an unexpected visitor – a European mantis, aka Preying mantis/Praying mantis. We have these large insectsContinue reading “A nice garden visitor”
Tag Archives: insects
Farles Prairie Recreation Area, Ocala State Forest
We spent a day on a trail looking at insects and birds. While the birds were great, the insects were even better. Bird grasshopper. Blue corporal (dragonfly) – female on the left, male on the right. Confusing duskywing on the left, Juvenal’s duskywing on the right. Florida harvester ants. They’re going to have to cutContinue reading “Farles Prairie Recreation Area, Ocala State Forest”
Haw Creek State Park, Florida
We spent a morning here with Roger and Dawn. There’s a wonderful boardwalk with great plants, insects and lizards But our day started at the bathrooms, it was a long drive and frankly there were insects/ Figure-eight Sallow (left) and Lunate Zale (right). These were a nice way to start the day. Spring fishflies addedContinue reading “Haw Creek State Park, Florida”
Canaveral National Seashore
Yesterday we spent the morning at Turtle Mound and Eldora two delightful places in the Canaveral National Seashore that are great for seeing plants and butterflies. The first thing that we saw was a Common Ground Dove, neither botanical nor a butterfly, but nice none-the-less. This Phaeon Crescent was basking in the morning sun. Abbot’sContinue reading “Canaveral National Seashore”
Dia de los Muertos and insects
I have been intrigued with Dia de los Muertos since I first leaned about it in the 1970s. This celebration is the perfect mix of ancient Mexican beliefs and Christian beliefs. One year in the early 1990s I was at Palenque, Mexico for the celebration and it was amazing. But now, thinking about death theContinue reading “Dia de los Muertos and insects”
Moth night – Matthaei Botanical Gardens – 2025
We arrived at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens early enough to set up our stations before beople started showing up. The start of the evening as people starting appearing. Some of the 68 participants hearing about where the stations were and how we were doing things. One of our further stations before people were on theContinue reading “Moth night – Matthaei Botanical Gardens – 2025”
Last moth night of 2024?
It was on the morning of 31 October that was checked on the moth trap that was set up the previous evening. The trap was set over one of our garden beds as pictured on the right. The left photo is Susan photographing moths before we released them back into the wild. The interesting thingContinue reading “Last moth night of 2024?”
The past few moth nights in Ann Arbor
In late August we had a moth night at Black Pond Woods. We had a large group of people and some interesting insects. We had three sheets set up and the “lighthouse.” The “lighthouse” is an Ikea portable wardrobe with the Lep-led inside with a power source. The jakery power source will last all nightContinue reading “The past few moth nights in Ann Arbor”
Moth night at Island Park, Ann Arbor
Our day started with the new moth trap set up. We got some moths and lost of aquatic insects. We had a spectacular dinner. Susan made falafel and we got tuum, humus, pita at El Harissa. I made mango-curried chickpeas and rice and this is what dinner looked like. Had to eat well since weContinue reading “Moth night at Island Park, Ann Arbor”
Butterflies and dinner
Currently there is very little diversity in butterflies at Whitefish Point. But there are still some interesting ones. I’m not a big fan of European skippers, they usually show up in the hundreds or even the thousands. However, seeing just one is OK, even though they are a non-native invasive. Over the past few daysContinue reading “Butterflies and dinner”
Michael's Place 