I’m so far behind on blog posts; I don’t know how I’m ever going to catch up!  This one will be mostly the insects I’ve been seeing or raising.

My Cecropia moths finally hatched – the first one on June 4th.

Baltimore Checkerspot – lots of these in the wetland

Ctenucha moth – one of the older instar caterpillars.

An adult Ctenucha Moth

I spent a morning pulling Dame’s Rocket – a weedy mustard that comes up in a small part of our wetland.   It doesn’t seem to be a big problem, but I’ve seen it completely take over woodlands, so I decided to get it out of there, just in case.

Northern Crescents – male and female

This is a Dart Moth – there are two very similar species – it’s either Xestia nigrum or X. dolosa.  There were many of them at my lights one night.

Spiderwort

Silvery Checkerspot

This beautiful little moth was on a friend’s land – on Sand Cherry Ridge.  Bob Patterson helped me identify it as one of the Crambine Snout Moths (Prionapteryx nebulifera).

Red-spotted Purple on Angelica

Least Skipper

Long Dash (Skipper)

This is American Cow Parsnip – a large plant that grows in our wetland.  It can get up to 10 feet tall.

The flowers are huge – this one was covered with tiny nectaring insects.

The fritillaries are out now, mostly Great Spangled Fritillaries.  They’re so big and showy.

This shows the underside of their wings.

This is a moth that came to my lights.  I think it’s a Little Virgin Tiger Moth.

And a gorgeous little grasshopper – I don’t know anything about identifying grasshoppers.

I saw a very interesting plant a few weeks ago.  It was on a nearby prairie – the owners sent me a photo and I realized it what it was and went to see it.  It’s considered “threatened” in Wisconsin, and the last time it was collected in Buffalo County was in 1915.  It’s called Clustered Broom-rape.  It’s parasitic, so it has no green at all.  It does have a yellowish flower, but by the time I saw it, the flowers had withered.

This is Emily’s photo of the flower

And my photo of the withered flowers