Nearly escaping notice: a small still moment
in a red-banded hairstreak’s day
.
.
.
July 15, 2015
June 6, 2015
WordPress recently wished some little crum creek a happy 5th anniversary.
That’s hard to believe! But unposted encounters do pile up over the years.
So it seems fitting to revisit some lingering conundrums.
For example, putting names to the various creatures here can be tricky.
To confirm this particular skipper (Hesperiidae family of butterflies),
I reached out to BAMONA.
Turns out to be a female sachem (Atalopedes campestris),
an early arrival on the butterfly bush back in May 2012.
Though I’ve not yet spotted one this spring,
we should have a pretty good idea of what to watch for!
…
For help with skippers and other butterflies, the following sites have been great resources:
Skippers of the Northeast (excellent short videos)
Nature Photography by Bob Moul (incredible photo galleries)
Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA, my go-to for verifying IDs)
Winged Beauty (Jeff’s pictures of skippers are just a part of his great project)
.
.
[end of post]
September 3, 2014
Unlike a pipevine swallowtail, the poisonous butterfly whose appearance it mimics,
and a dark form tiger swallowtail, which it also resembles, this spicebush swallowtail
displays two rows of orange spots on the underside of its wings
and opens its ivory-spotted, blue & black back to the sun along Little Crum Creek.
August 26, 2014
Occasionally mowing rouses a colorful escapade before the mower’s blades,
such as the black and orange blur of a banded tiger moth’s flight,*
which often ends with a moth wedging itself head first
between blades of grass where it lands.
And so, briefly, I detained this one for the simple reason
of sharing the lively colors of a coming season.
…
*Reportedly moths of the Apantesis genus can be difficult to distinguish. But I’m winging it here and identifying this one as the banded tiger moth (Apantesis vittata) because of the solid black border of the hindwing (differentiating it from the often spotted black border of the harnessed tiger moth, Apantesis phalerata). As always, corrections welcome!
.
.
.
August 18, 2014
October 15, 2013
September 14, 2013
August 5, 2013
April 14, 2013
August 31, 2012