Missing, Savoring Blossom Time

Bee on Redbud April 2015
Creek Field Riparian Buffer

Here it is, almost the last day of October, and I am missing spring.  I am missing the blooms & pollinators.   I am wild to learn more, and the growing, buzzing time is the best school.   I learned to identify a few bumble bees and look-alike carpenter bees & false bumble bees this past spring & summer--but still I cannot say right off what genus & species the bee on the redbud on the left belongs to. I can hardly wait for Spring 2016.

Still, these long autumn nights allow me to do what I couldn't do during the outside-all-day-long spring & summer time, and that is linger over my photos from the past season, ponder the information, review, relearn, & doublecheck.

Grapevine Epimenis (Psychomorpha epimenis) on Redbud, April 2015
Creek Field Riparian Buffer
Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge

Psychomorpha epimenis on Redbud, April 2015

 For, example, when I came across the next three photos--they are of a Grapevine Epimenis, aka  Psychomorpha epimenis, nectaring on a redbud--my first thought was "I had forgotten about that butterfly!"  But upon review I remembered that the Grapevine Epimenis is a moth-- brightly colored & gorgeous but still a moth.   And I was able to go to bugguide.net & study photos of P. epimenis larvae:  they are ringed with black & white stripes with orange patches at both ends.  Their host plants are grapevines (surprise, surprise) of which we have many.  In fact, the redbud this moth is nectaring on is just a few feet away from the banks of McDowell Creek--home to large numbers of wild grapes.  Now I know what caterpillars to look for and where to look for them.   I will be ready for next spring!

Grapevine Epimenis on Redbud, April 2015

Creek Field Riparian Buffer

along McDowell Creek

Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge