Skip to main content

An Exceptional Guest

This year’s 4th of July holiday included a welcome extra day off, giving me time for a few garden “chores”.  I just replaced a blade on one of my Felco pruners and was testing them out on the coral honeysuckle that grows around my rain tank.  An odd leaf attracted my attention … do you see it?
CamoMothJuly2010
It’s a Eumorpha pandorus, also known as a Pandora Sphinx moth or camouflage moth.  Here’s a peek at the underside, too.
CamoUndersideJuly2010 
In my garden, 2010’s been a great year for Lepidoptera, especially giant swallowtails.  But this?!!  WOW.  I have no idea where it came from or how I happened to see it, but it was certainly an honored guest.   
Anyone see these regularly in their garden or know their migration route? 

Comments

vbdb said…
A face only an entomologist could love? Thanks, Wizzie, for understanding.
Bob said…
I don't think they migrate but I could be wrong. I have a lot more fish if you need any. And I have your trellis as well. Are you coming to the next Go go? I will bring it if you are.
vbdb said…
I'd love more fish, but my partner in ponds is certain we have enough. We also have a tiny new frog, as well as the old one who's been with us for 3 years (?) now.

Probably need to make a trip out your way to pick up the trellis. Wanted to ask you about the possibility of making a small gate, too.
LindaCTG said…
Wow, thanks for posting this! I'll keep an eye out in my garden. I'm seeing insects that have never been here before.
Anonymous said…
That is so cool. I've never seen one in my garden. Thanks for bringing it/her? to our attention.~~Dee
vbdb said…
Dee, you're so welcome. Thanks for dropping by.

Popular posts from this blog

A Plant with Purple Leaves

There are a couple of groups on Facebook where I lurk and occasionally dip my opinion into the fray.  They're places where people with knowledge of unbelievable scope can be observed, deftly identifying this obscure native plant or that scraggly left-behind orphan found in the backyard of a newly purchased home.   One such backyard orphan recently was posted in need of identification.   If it were a native plant, two people on "Texas Flora" would've named it within minutes.  Even the taxonomy of those impossible grasses is typically put to rest in seconds.  Not so with this poor guy.   At first I was fairly certain it was one of the purple leafed basils, maybe 'African Blue'.  It's fairly impossible to find it still thriving in a Texas January, but two plants in my yard are still hanging in there.  They even look like they'll come back if we don't have a deep freeze before spring.  BTW, this basil has one heck of a botanical monik

Ho-hum to Habitat: My Path to Native Bees - Resources

San Antonio's Festival of Flowers will resume this Saturday, June 3, 2023, after a break of three years.    I've been given the opportunity to share how I garden, as well as a general overview of our native bees.   A link to a Google doc containing my handout (the info dense slides from my presentation) follows this list of resources.  Note that if you didn't attend, some of the handout pages may not make complete sense.     Hyperlinks to more resources: https://www.wildbeestexas.com/ https://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/jha/research/native-bee-communities https://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?collection=TX_central https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator.org/assets/generalFiles/BeginnerBeeFieldGuide_11March2022_LowRez.pdf https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/nongame/native-pollinators/bumblebee-id.phtml https://www.pollinatorphotos.com/ https://www.homegrownnationalpark.org/       https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yOIlJFjzgAlhc5nfTXkqrVutPxWHLwfQ/vie

Flying Flowers - Butterfly Gardening Handout for Festival of Flowers 2024

Let’s dig into “petals, puddles, and pesticides”. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AkRpm5NGtWnj4aIW1rTnqt7h_w9TpIs2/view?usp=drive_link