Moth I.D. – Large Lace-border Moth

This moth comes from the Geometrid moth family. We saw it in our yard in early July. It is white with off-white symmetrical lines across it and a lacy edge along the wings. Very pretty for a moth!

Wildflower I.D. – red clover

The clover is now dying out but back in June, we had tons of it that was attracting tons of butterflies! I thought this red clover pic was really pretty and it has a very small grasshopper on it!

Insect I.D. – Longhorn Beetle (of some kind)

There are over 1,000 types of longhorn beetles, so I’m not sure which one this is specifically but it’s pretty interesting. For a while we were finding these frequently on our sliding glass doors. When you touch them, they try to reach back and grab you with their harmless long antennaes. Their mouths can bite you but as long as you pick them up from behind their heads, you won’t get hurt by them. Their larvae typically like to eat rotting wood and thankfully aren’t a threat to healthy wood (like our house)! The adults feed on flowers. They’re black beetles with extremely long antennaes. The kids thought they were pretty cool!

Moth I.D. – some kind of Tiger Moth

I’m not sure what kind of tiger moth this is, but it’s very pretty and was found in our yard one evening. It’s front top wings are black with white lines or stripes around on it. The wings that are underneath and sometimes hidden are a bright red with black dots or splotches on it. Very pretty! We took some pics then let it go.

Caterpillar I.D. – Variegated Fritillary

We found a lot of these caterpillars on our pansies near the end of June. They were really enjoying their meal on our flowers! They are red and white striped with black spikes on them. We killed most of them so they wouldn’t eat all our flowers but kept a couple to try to raise. They did ok and one made it’s chrysalis which was a very pretty silver color, but unfortunately it didn’t make it for some reason and never emerged. Here’s a pic of our caterpillar.

Our collection of variegated fritillary caterpillars from our pansies

close-up of one we kept

Here’s what it would have turned into!

Wildflower I.D. – Creeping Thistle

Here’s another annoying wildflower that I wish I could have the flower of without the prickles and invasiveness! Unfortunately these are too prevalent in our yard!

 

Wildflower I.D. – Birdfoot Trefoil

Here’s another common weed that I photographed from our yard. I’ve seen these flowers all over quite a bit in my lifetime but never really looked at them close up. Though they’re obnoxious, the symmetry of the flowers is interesting!

Wildflower I.D. – Daisy Fleabane

We saw these daisy fleabane near a wooded area where we were hiking back in June. They resemble daisies in coloring but are smaller and the white part is more fringed.

Wildflower I.D. – Rough-fruited Cinquefoil

I found this flower blooming in our yard in June. The heart-shaped leaves are pretty. It’s probably considered a weed, but hasn’t been too invasive yet and is pretty. I don’t have a good pic of the rest of the plant here, but here’s the flower.

Caterpillar and Moth I.D. – White-marked Tussock Moth

We found this caterpillar a few weeks ago on a vine in our yard. It was black with light green stripes, light green round bumps on top, a couple red tubercles, and lots of white and cream-colored hairy tufts sticking out in different places.

We fed it some of the plant it was on when we found it and not too much later it made it’s cocoon.

We noticed the cocoon get brighter white and then turn a darker color before the moth emerged. It just emerged today!

These moths overwinter as eggs before hatching and growing. The female moths happen to be wingless and lay their eggs on their cocoon before dying. I am always amazed to find caterpillars and see what they become!