The Bugs in the Backyard: Flutter By, and By, and By

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Flutter By, and By, and By

There was a butterfly in my backyard today that spent at least two hours hanging around the autumn joy sedum. I spent some of that time watching the butterfly, trying to get pictures of it, and it would come and go, and come back again. I would leave and come back in half an hour, and there it was again. When I went into the house it had flown up and was sitting in a tree. I don't know if it came back after that, but tonight when I was standing on the back porch looking at the stars I started to wonder if it had come back, and if it had stayed there when it got dark. I think monarchs spend the night in trees, so I didn't think it was likely, but I figured it didn't hurt to look, and to see what, if anything, was on the flowers at night, which, strangely, is something I have never wondered about before now. And that is where I found the Backyard Bug of the Day:

This moth wasn't just resting on the flowers for the night; as we all know, many moths are nocturnal, and this one was actively feeding. Thinking about it now, it's actually more surprising that there was only one.

There were a few other bugs that were active on the flowers:

Earwig (sorry for the terrible picture. I was juggling a camera and a flashlight, and the earwig did not want to pose for me).

There were ants active on several of the plants.

This bee was dozing, though.

I suppose you probably want to see the butterfly, too:

Monarch. Male. I thought it was female until I looked at the pictures on my computer; sometimes you can see the dot identifying a monarch as male from this side of the wings, but not always.