Top Photo: Hummingbird moth (Hemaris thysbe) egg on viburnum flower buds (shiny, round, green object). Hummingbird moth eggs are very small, about 1mm – 1.5mm. To see one of those swift flying, diurnal moths lay an egg requires being in the right place at the right time. Standing next to a viburnum (frequent host plant for this species) is a good place to be. I’m not sure of the right time, though a bright sunny summer’s day seems about right.Read more
Posts tagged: #insects
Needle Ant
Top Photo: Asian needle ant (Brachyponera chinensis). Depending upon who you reference, there are somewhere around 10,000 to 12,000 known species of ant in the world. New species are still being discovered. There’s an estimated total of some 20,000 species including what has yet to be described. The number 1,000 is most often returned in searches for North American species. And it seems 192 species is the most recently calculated number for North Carolina. I have no idea how manyRead more
Leaf-footed Encounter
Top Photo: Leaf-footed bug encounter on path. About one and a half weeks ago here on this blog, I mentioned an insect called a leaf-footed bug. I also posted a picture of the insect. At the time, I wasn’t sure of the identity of the insect beyond leaf-footed bug of which there are about 80 species in North America. Today, I came across two others of what appear to be the same species on the path in a closed (toRead more