July 27, 2025

It was another hot week.  One day the camera lens kept fogging over and I had to keep wiping it in order to get a picture.  But friends have been very kind with their own lovely pictures.  Here is Kathleen Seidl's Monarch on a coneflower.  I am going to try to raise some of those coneflowers!  

Now that the Water Lilies have learned how to bloom, we have a lovely one almost every day.  Here is one with a Honeybee in it, followed by one with a bud.

That Trumpetvine is still producing those lovely red trumpets - good thing they are silent else everything else would fly away!  The Phlox have been blooming for some time and are about done for the year, but here is a last good shot.

From the largest and most shockingly colored flowers to the smallest.  Here again is the Asiatic Day Flower, trying unsuccessfully to hide its gorgeous blue blossom under a leaf.  When I submitted flower number 2 to iNat, they called it a "White Pink".  Third is one of the tiniest flowers I saw this week!

If this weren't so scary, it would be funny.  It looks like Poison Ivy caught itself!  Second is a plant with the thickest outgrowth I've ever seen.  

This one was taken at the Carnivorous Plants terrarium at the Whitehouse Nature Center!

This caterpillar may be a young Hyphantria, a kind of Tiger Moth.  Second is probably the larva of a Fall Webworm Moth, but don't the two look similar?  I'm still waiting for someone to say yes!

Here is a Verbena Bud Moth.  I don't have any Verbena, but the Moth might have flown in from where there is some.  Picture #2 may be a Moth but I don't know which one.  Abigail Cahll sent this picture (picture 3) as possible real guy.  

 Here is a Beetle, probably a Spanish Flea Beetle.  Second and third are Beetles whose names I'm waiting to hear.

Here are a couple more Beetles.  When I imported the second picture, I didn't see the tail on the Beetle.  :-)  But there it is.

This fellow is a true Bug.  In picture 2, he has turned to look at us.   I'm sorry -- of the six or so pictures I took, not a one was in focus, but he does seem to be very curious about us!  Picture 3 shows another rather small Bug.  

Before I go on, here is a creature I forgot to include last week.  It is a six-legged creature, but is not an Insect.  How can that be?  You may remember from a winter or so ago when pictures of Springtails were fairly common.  But why are we seeing this one now?  Back then, I used to associate Springtails with a change from winter to spring!  I'd hardly call the end of July a change from winter to spring.  Perhaps a change from Summer to Summer!  Anyway, it has a name - Tomocerus vulgaris.  Here of course "vulgaris" doesn't mean "vulgar" but "common".  :-) 

We certainly had a few Spiders and Harvestmen (Daddy-long-legs).  Let's look at some of them.  I don't know what this first one is, except to say it is a Spider.  The second one may be an expanded view of the first one.  Number 3 is a Spider, yes, but look at the picture - it is actually called a Butterfly Spider because of the stylized view of a Butterfly on it.  

Here is a Spider doing what Spiders do - taking prey.  This particular first Spider has captured a Zelus luridus (Assassin Bug), but it isn't easy to identify the predator.  The second seems to be Naphrys pulex, the Flea Jumping Spider.  

Well, folks, we seem to be at about the end of our pictures of the Back Yard.  I hope you have had a wonderful time outdoors despite the humidity.  Take care and see you next week!  Love, Martha