Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Moths in the Daytime?

Some new butterfly/moth action at the Joe Pye Weeds at work today.  I saw these little guys hanging around, and ran back to my office to get the camera.  Hummingbirds with antennae?  Hardly.  These are Clearwing Hummingbird Moths!  (Hemaris thysbe). They are so cool to watch...

Definitely click on to embiggen...


I saw two individuals with 2 different color patterns today, this reddish one...

...and this mostly black one.  Just variations, or is it a sex thing?  They didn't really seem to flock, and the one time they were on the same flower, they stayed on opposite sides.








Monarch butterflies are starting to show up now and then.















The Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are there in abundance, mostly the yellow phase, but now and then a black one.  I didn't see any black ones, but there was one beat up Spicebush Swallowtail hanging around.




And of course, the omnipresent skippers, in a variety of sizes and shades.  Even our local taxonomic guru admits there are too many of them for him to keep track of.

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