Bike Spider

JG left his bike on the porch for a day and a half and discovered someone had set up camp in his front tire and laid an enormous egg sack.  Wikipedia says they're up to an inch in diameter and this one was at least that big.

 She didn't react much when JG transferred the sack, via stick, to the hibiscus bush.  Frankly, if I'd just laid that many eggs, I'd be beat, too.

Bonus:  Here's one rolling a wasp on YouTube.  It'd be even better set to "Flight of the Bumblebee."

I Spy

Here's a little game:


What do you see in this picture? It's not the most aesthetic picture I've ever taken, but I've been staring at it for a while and there're a _lot_ of things going on here.

La Vista

I snuck back to Texas for a week just as the snow started in Yankee Land. My brother works on a cattle ranch [remember the Beef Cake?] and we spent a little time out there. I really loved this picture of a hornet's nest on a mesquite branch... "Don't Mess with Texas," indeed.

[FYI: Mesquite is not native to Texas but was brought with the Spaniards, probably as seeds in the stomachs of their cows. Those thorns are thick and sharp enough to puncture a car tire.]

An Intrepid Window Screen

Our downstairs neighbor replaced some cracked glass in the hallway window, but since it starts getting dark around 4 here in Yankee Land and he has a day job, working on it meant having a giant screen-less hole when all the interior lights were on. I was sure we were going to have a plague of moths, but the next morning I discovered that a temporary window screen had neatly installed herself from corner to corner.
You might need to click on the picture to get a clearer picture.

Now I've done it.

Have you ever accidentally created a mosquito terrarium? I don't mean a breeding ground in the form of a bucket of rain water on the patio; I mean a display case in your living room full of buzzing mosquitoes, something only a truly demented person would possess.
It started innocently enough. There was a very pretty polypore fungus at the base of a tree around the corner, hanging over the curb. I decided that sooner or later a car was going to park too close and destroy it and my Wardian case happened to be empty, so JG brought it home for me. [You know it's love when they bring you a fungus the length of your forearm that smells of wood rot.]
Unfortunately, it turns out that the polypore holds enough moisture to spawn mosquitoes and now there are quite a few floating around the case but, luckily for me, New England mosquitoes are frighteningly large and don't seem to be able to escape at the hinge seams.

My only hope now is that whatever spider lives in there will eat them all.

Crouching Insect

Here's one last picture from my former garden. I like the way the ant balances on the fennel fronds. I think it's a carpenter ant, which is technically a bad thing for houses... but it's not mine anymore.
It's like the sword fight in the bamboo grove in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, no?

Queen on Weed

A queen caterpillar on butterfly weed. The easiest way to tell a queen from a monarch is the middle set of "tentacles," which monarchs don't have.

Garden Radishes

What's worse than finding a worm in your radish?
Finding half a worm! Ha!

Ghost Millipede

I found an albino millipede when I was watering my orchids. I wouldn't have guessed I had millipedes in my house and the orchids have been around for years, so I don't think it came with the plant... although they do have a surprisingly long life span [up to 10 years in the case of giant millipedes] so maybe it just finally got big enough for me to notice.
I took a couple pictures, went to find a jar... and then it vanished. I watered the plant again to see if I could flood it out but it didn't work, so now I'm trying to lure it out with compost scraps. We'll see. I love millipedes. Centipedes creep me out because they're fast and bite, but millipedes are always chill.

As an aside, isn't this a lovely paphiopedilum?

Duck? Duck or Goose?

It's another 65F day here in Austin. A great day to wander around Lady Bird Lake. There're tons of waterfowl overwintering here, but this guy's my favorite.

I think he's a goose, but he may be a duck... I really don't know. He was about six times bigger than the wood ducks and he posed for me for a good 20 minutes. I have no idea what I'm going to do with my goose-feet series, but they were just so interesting. What can he possibly use his crocodile claws for?

Zilker Swans

At least one pair of swans on Lady Bird Lake have a little game going. They hang out at the shore of Auditorium Shores (a leash-free area) and bait the dogs. They hiss and flap until one ventures into the water, then they swim away from shore until the dog turns back, then chase the dog back to shore.
They'll do this circle to and from the shore until the dog tires out and gives up. The swans may not do it with more aggressive dogs, but The Stink Factor's been playing with them for over a year now.

Watch what you eat.

A friendly reminder: Whole/stone ground/steel-cut grains and cereal meals do not keep indefinitely. They contain the germ which contains oils and they can oxidize and go rancid if left around too long in a warm environment like a kitchen. Either buy only as much as you'll use in a couple months, or keep it in the freezer.

Also: Cardboard containers like those for pasta and oatmeal are not airtight...
I almost got a little extra protein in my oatmeal this morning. I stopped to pour myself a cup of coffee and noticed that there was a lot of chaff rising to the top... and that the chaff had legs.

[I think it's a tiny weevil; that thing in the left corner is a rolled oat. Yes, I know steel-cut oats are better for you.]
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Gulf Fritillaries -- a gluten-free post

These guys are definitely not edible. The Gulf Fritillary and other longwing butterflies live exclusively on passionflower vines as caterpillars... the plant that produces passion fruit. [Incidentally, the name comes from the flower's resemblance to the biblical crown of thorns; the fruit isn't an aphrodisiac.]

The leaves produce very small amounts of arsenic and the caterpillars absorb it and release it through their spines. Sometimes they're just orange and black, but sometimes they get fancy. This one even has striped eyes.

It's getting to be the end of the season for these guys. Just thought I'd share.