Last week we had photographs for insects for A-M, now let’s finish the alphabet.
Northern two-striped walkingstick
Oleander aphids
Praying mantis
Queen butterfly
Rustic sphinx moth
Sawfly larva (love that color)
Tarantula hawk
Underwing moth caterpillar
Velvet ant (wasp)
Water-strider
Xylocopa virginica – carpenter bee
Yellow jacket wasp
Zebra butterfly
That wasn’t too bad. I only had to resort to scientific names once.
So, now you know your insect ABC’s!
I’ve got a lot going on this month and for something a little different, I thought I’d try to find insect photographs for every letter of the alphabet. Here’s what I found for the first half, A to M.
Ant
Beetles
Cicada
Damselfly
Earwig
Firefly
Grasshopper
Hackberry Butterfly
Inchworm
Jewel Bee
Katydid
Lacewing
Moth
The second half of the alphabet is more difficult. Wish me luck next week!
Remember the caterpillar on the palo verde tree?
Now we have most parts of the life cycle.
Caterpillar
Pupa
And now a moth!
Turns out to be the Royal Poinciana Moth, Melipotis acontioides, or a close relative. Isn’t that a great common name?
It turns out that I had found a similar moth a few weeks before. I didn’t try to identify it at the time because I had no idea what it’s food plant was.
Knowing the food plant, plus all the stages, makes it easier to figure out an insect’s identity.
Arizona naturalists have some more photographs of the same species of moth found in June 1, 2005. I first found our caterpillars May 30, 2018.
Interested in moths? Don’t forget National Moth Week events, which are July 21-29, 2018.
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.
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