Last night I set up the blacklight. Since the butterflies were abundant, I thought maybe the moths would be too. And they were. I have far too many photographs of new moths to post here. I photographed 16 species that were new for me! I was hoping to get an Io Moth but that didn’t happen, but I did get some really nice sphinx moths that I’ve never seen before. Maybe tonight I can get an Io Moth. I’ve been using iNaturalist to get a quick ID on most of these moths and it is working very well, highly recommended!
This was the most exciting species, Aechemon Sphinx. Larval food is various species in the grape family. This is a big moth! I’ve never seen one before. This is a smaller sphinx moth, the Vashti Sphinx. The larval food plant is snowberry. Another new species for me. A Waved Sphinx. Larva feed on ash and hawthorn, both of which are present in the area. Zeller’s Macalla Moth, Macalla zelleri. Another new species for me. Larval food plant is poison ivy, which is very abundant here. Common Lytrosis Moth, Lytrosis unitaria. A strange looking moth, one of the larval food plants is hawthorn, which is found in the Slim Buttes. This will be a first South Dakota record for BugGuide when I get it entered. Nicrophorus orbicollis, a species of burying beetle, carrying a lot of phoretic mites. Large Lace-border Moth, Scopula limboundata. This will also be new BugGuide record for South Dakota when I get it entered. This is my big butterfly find, a Striped Hairstreak from a couple of days ago. I’ve only seen two of these before and neither one of those was very cooperative. This one was, I got lots of photos with the 100mm macro and ringflash.
I’ve been checking on a patch of Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum) and photographing insects on the flowers. Although the plant is poisonous to most mammals, including humans, the flowers are very attractive to insects. All parts of the plant are toxic to mammals and can cause cardiac arrest if eaten. It is a member of the Apocynaceae family and other plants in the family are also poisonous. Dogbane is a host plant for many insects, including the Snowberry Clearwing Moth. Although I found many species of flies, the lack of bees is quite concerning. Not much is known about most of these species, just a name and a distribution. It is fun and challenging photographing them; I used a 100mm f2.8 macro and a ringflash.
A soldier fly, Odontomyia cincta.Hobomok Skipper. Common Thick-leg Fly, Tropidia quadrata. This is a species of hover fly. Larvae are aquatic. Broad-headed Marsh Fly, Helophilus latifrons.Yellow-shouldered Drone Fly, Eristalis stipator.Clay-colored Leaf Beetle, Anomoea laticlavia. According to comments in BugGuide, larvae are myrmecophiles having an association with ants of the genus Formica.
I left Valley of Fires on Saturday and drove north into Colorado, stopping for the night at the Timpas picnic area. Timpas picnic area is actually a Forest Service (Comanche National Grassland) picnic area/campground of sorts, there are some picnic tables, shelters, a restroom, interpretive signs, and best of all, some pretty good birding. It was here, many years ago, that I got my lifer Cassin’s Sparrow. I saw some again on this stop, along with abundant Lark Buntings, some Curve-billed and Sage Thrashers, meadowlarks, and others. For me, the Cassin’s Sparrow was the most interesting.
Timpas is open for camping and is free and quiet. There is no water and no phone/internet service. There is a railroad that runs close by, but every time I’ve stayed there the only train is an Amtrak that comes by around 8 PM. I left Timpas early this morning and drove to Red Willow State Park near McCook. I like this park but it sure is expensive, $42.00 a night. At least it is quiet. After free camping in the Sonoran Desert all winter, I shouldn’t complain.
I got some pretty good photos of Cassin’s Sparrows. They aren’t much to look at, but their song makes up for that. They fly high in the sky, like Lark Buntings, while singing. I saw more Eastern Collared Lizards at Valley of Fires. This one is a large male but lacking any color. I’ve read about melanistic individuals living in areas of dark rocks, maybe this is one of them. This is a blister beetle, Epicauta atrivittata. I saw a couple of them on the walls of the restroom at Valley of Fires. There isn’t much information on this beetle, it is known to feed on mesquites and some species of nightshade. Also, at Valley of Fires, Red Barberry. The Apache ate the fruits and made a yellow dye from the roots. I came across two different plants named after the same botanist, Augustus Fendler. I got curious about him and found out that he led quite an adventurous life. Here’s a LINK to a Wikipedia article about him. This flower is Fendler’s Desert Dandelion, Malacothrix fendleri. And here is Fendler’s Penstemon, Penstemon fendleri.
I’m still here. The weather is pleasant, it is quiet, for the most part, and I’m still finding new things to photograph. I said it is quiet for the most part, but last week, there was an accident on I-10 east of Wilcox. A truck hit an overpass bridge and damaged it so badly that the westbound lane was closed. The traffic was all routed down state Highway 80, which goes right past me. I’m about 1/4 mile from the highway but it was still pretty noisy with all the trucks rumbling by. That lasted for two days. Most of the time there is very little traffic on Highway 80.
An Acmon Blue, living dangerously. Can you spot the crab spider?A new species of cactus for me, Beehive Cactus, Escobaria vivipara. One could almost pass this flower off as a bladderpod, which were extremely abundant earlier this spring. But it is later now, and I took a closer look. This is Golden Linanthus, Leptosiphon chrysanthus. I cannot find much information about it besides the name. It is in the Phlox family. This strange plant is Jatropha macrorhiza, Ragged Nettle-Spurge. It is reportedly rare in the United States. It occurs in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona but is more common in Mexico. I came across a pair of Black-throated Sparrows feeding this young bird that is fresh out of the nest. A Lesser Nighthawk roosting. This is the first time I’ve been able to get a shot like this, in fact the first time I’ve seen a Lesser Nighthawk roosting! Mammallaria heyderi, Pancake Pincushion. First one I’ve ever seen. During wet periods, the cactus will pull in enough water to swell up to the size of a basketball. Mexican Cactus Fly. The larvae feed on dying cactus. This one is nectaring on Brittlebush. Red Four o’Clock, Mirabilis coccinea.
This morning I took off on a long hike to investigate a mountain I can see in the distance from the rim of the Peloncillos. The mountain had a sheer face with lots of large boulders piled up at the base. Looked like good herp habitat. In addition, the big rock face will run off lots of rain into the boulders at the base, therefore should be much wetter than most of this area. When I got to the scene, that is what I found. The mountainside is pure granite with a large jumble of boulders at the base. There are many types of plants growing in the boulders that I don’t see elsewhere around here. Most notable, lots of Soapberry. There is a butterfly called a Soapberry Hairstreak that I’ve been looking for, this could be the place to get it. I didn’t see any today though. There was also more Gambel’s Oak.
I’ve never seen this flower before, Buckley’s Centaury, Zeltnera calycosa. What a beautiful flower! Typically, this plant grows in wetter places and the boulder field seems to be good enough. Another view with a different angle. Desert Holly, Acourtia nana, is flowering, first time I’ve seen this happen. I got two lifer butterflies today. This one is a Texas Powdered Skipper, very similar to the Arizona Powdered Skipper, but there are differences. The other lifer butterfly, an Acacia Skipper. I was checking the Turkey Vultures soaring overhead and found this Zone-tailed Hawk in with them. At the base of the boulder field, there was a lot of Cane Cholla in flower. I tried to make this into a Mexican Fritillary, but it isn’t, just the ordinary Variegated Fritillary.
The heat has arrived. Yesterday it hit 100 F at my campsite and probably will be close to that today. Nighttime warmth has brought out the insects and herps are more active too. I even managed to fit in a couple of nights of astro. Now to get some photos posted.
My first Gila Monster in several years. I found this one the road into McGrady Wash yesterday. This morning I found a Coachwhip on the Scenic Loop Road. I opted for this close-up of the head. Here is the whole snake, a big one. I learned a long time ago that trying to handle Coachwhips just doesn’t pay off. They fight and bite and they are strong. This is a bark-boring beetle, Temnoscheila chlorodia. Supposedly found on conifers, but there are no conifers around here, except for a very few in town. Must be a disperser. Triocnemis saporis, an uncommonly reported moth. Larval food plants include various species of Eriogonum.Pyrausta pseudonythesalis, apparently nothing is known about it other than basic distribution.Forsebia cinis, Forsebia Moth. Larval food plant is probably Yellow Palo Verde. This is the only species in the genus found north of Mexico. Angel Lichen Moth, Cisthene angelus. Larva feed on lichens and algae. A beetle in the genus Phengodes. The species is unknown, but a generic name for these insects is Glowworm Beetle. The females and larvae have bioluminescent organs. This one is a male, only the males have wings. A Western Corsair Bug, Rasahus thoracicus, a species of assassin bug. Unlike most of the other assassin bugs, the bite of the Western Corsair Bug can be extremely painful.
I have continued trying to photograph pollinators at Ajo Lily flowers. Paul Johnson and I sat out Sunday night for a couple of hours and despite what seemed like suitable conditions, we had no success. Last night it was very windy and cold. Tonight, the wind went down but it was still cool. I decided to try anyway and I’m glad I did! I’m also going to add some photos from a blacklight session last week. My old blacklight quit working and BioQuip (an entomology supply company) has gone out of business. So, I had to try something different. I bought a blacklight LED strip, about 3 feet long. It runs off a 12 volt battery. My only night testing it was also pretty cool, but it attracted plenty of insects, despite the chilly weather. I’m looking forward to more of that as the weather warms. As always, a larger image can be seen by right clicking on an image and opening in a new tab or window.
This is my favorite White-lined Sphinx image as it visits the Ajo Lily. One can see the proboscis extending into the flower tube. I used a hand-held remote shutter release instead of relying on the laser trigger, I was able to get more shots that way. I like this one too, the uppersides of the wings are more colorful. Now the moth is really getting into the pollen on the anthers. The stigma and style are just below the moth’s abdomen. Macaria deceptrix, larval food plant is Condalia.Zaleops umbrina, this is the only species of Zaleops found north of Mexico. Larval food plant is Catsclaw Acacia. Lithostege fuscata, there are very few records of this moth in BugGuide. It is restricted to deserts of California, Arizona and New Mexico. Not much else is known about it. Hemeroplanis incusalis, larval food plant is mesquites and other legumes. It has a wider distribution, in deserts and low mountains of Arizona, California and Nevada. My sister Susan asked the question, if the red spot on Lithostege fuscata was part of the moth or a parasite? I had passed it off as a red spot on the moth, but I took a closer look and indeed, it is a parasite!
I’ve been wanting to do this since I got here, but my knee hasn’t. My left knee has been pretty sore since I left South Dakota but is slowly getting better. Today, I tested it out on Alamo Canyon, and it did fine. The park biologist, Danny Martin, told me he had seen some good butterflies there this summer, including Tropical Leafwings and Zilpa Longtails. The Zilpa Longtail would have been a lifer, but I couldn’t find any today. Probably getting too late in the season, but there were still some Tropical Leafwings, and I was very happy to get the best photos I have ever taken of that species. I saw some Tropical Leafwings years ago at Miller Canyon but had poor luck photographing them.
A Tropical Leafwing, finally posing the way I needed it to. They have a strong tendency to land, fold their wings, and face directly toward or away from me. After many failed attempts I finally got this one in a decent position, with the sun behind me. This species is very similar to the Goatweed Butterfly, but has a small tooth below that larger tooth and above the lower corner of the wing. Then, miracle of miracles, it opened the wings up and I got just a few shots before it flew off again. The wing pattern is that of a male. I found this Sonoran Collared Lizard basking on a rock; I don’t remember ever seeing one this late in the season. A couple of days ago I was hiking off Pipeline Road when I found what I believe is a metate, a grinding rock used by Native Americans. It was the only large rock in the area and the flat, slightly concave surface makes it a likely metate. The latest big excitement at Lake Ajo, a Surf Scoter. Jupiter is now rising up over 50 degrees above the horizon, the highest altitude I’ve been image it since I started doing this. The higher altitude helps get it out of the murk and turbulence of the atmosphere. I tried it a few nights ago despite only average “seeing” conditions. I took 6 three-minute videos and stacked the best frames. Expect more Jupiter images in the near future!
The full moon is coming back strong now but I had some good nights over the last few weeks. I’ve been thinking about what I can do to improve my astrophotography and I think my best bet is a dedicated astro camera. I’ve been using an old Canon 7D MII that was modified for H-alpha. The images are always pretty noisy though and hard to process. So, maybe in the near future there will be change.
The Fiddlehead Galaxy, I started this last winter and just added several more hours. This is called the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also designated M76. It is only about 3 arc minutes in diameter. I tried this once with the 500 f4 but it was too small to be much good. This is a planetary nebula, one of Charles Messier’s “not a comet” nebulas. It is actually quite bright, just small in view. It can be seen in Perseus; it is about 2200 light years away and a little over one light year in diameter. NGC 654, an open star cluster in Cassiopeia. It is large enough and bright enough that it can be seen as a faint glow with binoculars. The brightest star is HIP 8106, a magnitude 7.3 star, not visible to the unaided eye.NGC 891, an edge-on galaxy in Andromeda, about 30 million light years out there. It looks a lot like the Needle Galaxy, but it is much smaller in view. I started this one last winter too, and just added more exposure.The Northern Trifid, located in Perseus. It is part of the huge California Molecular Cloud and very faint, a combination of dust, emission nebula and reflection nebula. And one butterfly photo, a Ceraunus Blue nectaring on Chuckwalla Delight.
Last fall all the insect action was on Chuckwalla Delight flowers, this fall it is Desert Broom. Find a Desert Broom plant in flower and one is in business. Since I’ve been here, I have seen no kangaroo rats out at night, then last night I saw two near the camper. They seem to be inactive some nights and active on others. I’m still working on a couple of astrophotography targets, but they are not ready to show yet.
Leda Ministreak with one wing raised enough to see the blue on the upper part of the other wing. The flower is Desert Broom.Here we go again, more photos of Great Purple Hairstreak. I can’t resist. This one is a male. A Bee Fly, genus Bombylius.Mexican Amberwing, Perithemis intensa. A dragonfly species of wet areas in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts. A longhorn beetle on Desert Broom. It has no common name, but is known as Sphaenothecus bilineatus, according to BugGuide. One of the Merriam’s Kangaroo Rats I saw last night.
