St. Louis County – A Thousand Acres of Silphiums

From the Garden – Skippers and Bees

Backyard Gardens, macro, wildlife, wildlife photography

As the wildflower bed in the front yard begins to mature, the pollinators have come in droves. I really enjoyed getting to know the members of the Hesperiidae (skipper butterflies) this year. Although suburbia seems to support only a few species, their numbers were great in my yard. Most of these are considered “grass skippers” due to their host plant needs. It makes sense that these species would do well in a suburban area with plenty of flowering natives. Most grass skippers will use zoysia and Bermuda grass as host plants. I hate to think how many larvae get destroyed in the neighborhood each season with the relentless lawn mowing.

These first three photos are the sachem (Atalopedes campestris). This is a very common species in the yard and they seem to have a very long flight season. I noticed they come in a variety of shades and patterns that can make identifying them a bit troublesome.

Next up is the overlooked beauty but common Peck’s skipper (Polites peckius). Along with the sachem, this guy was common for most of the flowering season.

The final skipper from the yard is a favorite among anyone who cares to notice skippers. The brilliant fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus). Although I found a scattered few in May, June and July, they seem to have a little later season than the others. I found them in the tens in August and September.

If you want to have lots of skippers, I highly recommend planting asters in the genus Symphyotrichum. This will attract skippers and many other insect pollinators who need these plants.

Finally, I found a very interesting solitary bee that was feeding on the Asclepias tuberosa that was blooming in the glade garden that installed around our mailbox this past May. This is a male carpenter-mimic leafcutter bee (Megachile xylocopoides).

A New Nature Photography Project is Waiting Outside Your Front Door

macro, Plant galls, wildlife, wildlife photography

I never know when I’ll find a new nature photography project, or, more accurately, when a nature photography project will find me. In this case in the form of a hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) leaf, blown in to land on our front walk from one of this past year’s summer storms. I still have not identified a hackberry within a square block of our house, so I am still unsure from what distance this leaf came to arrive at our front steps.

A hackberry (*Celtis occidentalis*) leaf with galls formed by *Pachypsylla celtidismamma,* known generally as the hackberry nipplegall maker or hackberry psylla.

I pretty quickly identified the leaf and the responsible gall inducer. Pachypsylla celtidismamma is a plant-parasitic hemipteran in the Aphalaridae family. The Pachypsyllinae, the subfamily in which these guys are organized in, feed only on hackberry. I wasn’t sure what the fate of the gall makers might be, once the leaf was separated from the tree. I doubted that they would be able to make it to adulthood, so I thought this would be a great time to use my 2-5x macro lens.

*Pachypsylla celtidismamma* nymphs located within the chambers of their gall home. Two individual nymphs can be seen in this photo. An inquiline species (*Pachypsylla cohabitans*) can also be found within the galls but I have no idea how one would tell the difference between nymphs of these two species.

I cut open a few different galls and they all contained at least two cute nymphs. After emerging from their gall nurseries, the adults overwinter in cracks and crevices of the hackberry tree’s bark until the following spring. Females need to be present at just the right time in spring in order to insert their eggs in the developing leaves.

A *Pachypsylla celtidismamma* nymph removed from its gall nursery.

The presence of these galls is not detrimental to the overall health of the hackberry host. Some property owners dislike them because of the disfigured appearance of the leaves. I wish these owners could see this as being part of the overall food web in their community and a fascinating natural history story, instead of using insecticides that would affect dozens of other insect species just in the name of aesthetics.

A *Pachypsylla celtidismamma* nymph at approximately 1 mm in length.

-Ozark Bill

Cooper in Our Yard

birds, Nesting Birds of Missouri, wildlife, wildlife photography

This beautiful adult Cooper’s Hawk flew through the yard a few times recently, attempting to catch diner. On this occasion it stopped on a shepherd’s hook and had a rest. I explained to it that it could have all the Starlings and ETS’s it could catch but to leave the juncos alone.

Green Heron – From the Canoe

Photography from the boat, wildlife

On my last trip out with the canoe, back in September, I came across this most cooperative Green Heron. It did not care at all that I was hanging out watching it hunt. It was a fun challenge, maneuvering around as quietly and methodically as I could in order to get the right light on the bird and the best background possible.

The benefits of wildlife photography from a boat.

Thank you for stopping by.

-OZB

Bay-breasted Warbler

birds, wildlife, wildlife photography

Dave and I found this Bay-breasted Warbler on May 20th this year at Creve Coeur Lake in St. Louis County. Always a pleasure to find a singing Bay-breasted.