Doomed Caterpillars

Caterpillar (perhaps hummingbird clearwing moth, Hemaris thysbe) with braconid wasp cocoons on Viburnum dentatum 'Chicago Lustre'

In my last post, I talked about looking for a caterpillar and finding a small tree frog on an arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum 'Chicago Lustre').

Today, on the same shrub, I found two large caterpillars that had been attacked by some sort of parasitoid wasps.

The wasps - which I believe belong to one of the 15,000-plus known species of 'braconid wasps' - lay their eggs in the caterpillars. The larvae mature inside the caterpillar, then emerge to construct cocoons on the caterpillar's back, where they can metamorphose into wasps and continue their life cycle.

Incidentally, I believe the caterpillars are the larvae of the hummingbird clearwing sphinx moth (Hemaris thysbe). The adult moth is quite beautiful.

Looked for a Cat, Found a Frog

A couple of days ago, I spotted this green caterpillar nicely camouflaged as it munched away on an arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum) leaf.

Unknown caterpillar snacks on arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum 'Chicago Lustre') leaf

So this morning, I thought I would take another look at the shrub to see if I could spot the caterpillar again.

Couldn't find it, but I did discover this little fella looking quite at home on a leafy perch!

I think this might be a young eastern gray treefrog, but I'm no herpetologist!

I was so happy to see a frog in my garden for the first time ever! :)

Too Many Cats on the Fennel?

I counted 19 caterpillars - eastern black swallowtails, I think - on the bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum'). You can see 13 or 14 of them in the photo below if you look carefully...

Here's a close-up to make things easier...

How many caterpillars can survive on a single fennel plant? I worry about whether these cats will have enough to eat, but since I only have the one fennel plant growing in my garden (I direct sowed a packet of seeds and only one plant grew to maturity), I don't think I have any options to relocate any of the cats.

Hopefully they'll all make it to maturity and will be able to pupate successfully! So far, there's still plenty of foliage, but there are also lots of hungry caterpillars!

Wild Senna and the Hidden Cat

Can you spot the caterpillar on this wild senna plant (Senna marilandica)?

How about now? :)

Bees, Soldier Beetles, Cats and Butterflies - Oh My!

Carpenter bee on reblooming Vitex agnus-castus (chaste tree)

Can you spot the Very Fuzzy Caterpillar?

How about now? It's a milkweed tussock moth (a.k.a. milkweed tiger moth) on a swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

Two milkweed tussock caterpillars also seem happy to feed on a different species of milkweed - Asclepias viridis (green antelopehorn)

Soldier beetle on false sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides)

Butterflies like to feed on false sunflower too!

They also feed on blanket flower (Gaillardia x grandiflora)

Before and After - Echinacea purpurea, purple coneflower

The goldfinches were here...

(PS - That's Aralia racemosa - American spikenard - in the artfully out-of-focus background...) :)

Ghost of a Zebra

Tries to capture a zebra swallowtail (Protographium marcellus) nectaring on some anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum).

Since I wasn't quite fast enough though, all I caught was this beautiful, ghostly blur.

In a way, it seemed fitting -- like I managed to get an image of the spirit of the butterfly, rather than the butterfly itself.

Pollinators LOVE Chinese chive flowers

As you can see...

One perfect zinnia

Sound of summer

Although this is just a picture and not a video, perhaps you can imagine the song of the cicada?