Warm Autumn

So far this year autumn feels warmer than usual and I'm still seeing flowers, butterflies and moths. The first several images are from the garden and the last two are from natural desert areas.

Texan Crescent

Bee and Texas Sage

Mexican Yellow on Plumbago

Zinnia

Tobacco Hornworm on Vitex Tree

Hubbard Silkmoth

Unidentified Moth on Turpentine Flower

Paperflower, Brittlebush
Desert Marigold, Turpentine bush

Dainty Sulphur

Have a good day!

More Moths

These are some of the moths I've found this summer under the porch light. The bumpy textured stucco wall probably isn't the nicest background for close-up pictures, but a wall is an easy place to observe moths.

A field guide for moths would help for identifying these little winged creatures, but I don't have one yet. I'm pretty sure the last moth pictured above is a staghorn cholla moth.  The staghorn cholla is a common cactus around here.  I can't recall ever seeing a moth on a cactus, probably because most moths are nocturnal.

Last year I saw a tiny emerald moth and a sulphur butterfly on a cottonwood leaf by the creek:

And two years ago, I saw this colorful moth on the wall, possibly a Nevada tiger moth:

That's about it, have a great week!

Hornworms and Hawkmoths

I often find giant green hornworms on tomato vines in our summer garden but this year I noticed hornworms on the vitex tree instead.

camouflaged hornworm on vitex tree

rustic sphinx munching a leaf

The hornworm is much easier to see on a bare branch.

Goldfinches watched the caterpillars from the mesquite tree.

Hummingbirds were curious too!

A hornworm from last year demonstrating the classic sphinx pose:

tobacco hornworm on bell pepper plant

For several years, I assumed the large green caterpillars on my tomato plants were tomato hornworms, but now I see that they look more like tobacco hornworms (Carolina sphinx) or Rustic sphinx larvae.

Tomato hornworms have eight v-shaped markings on each side where tobacco or rustic hornworms have seven diagonal white lines.

Hornworms morph into sphinx moths, also known as hummingbird moths that can hover in mid-air feeding on flower nectar as hummingbirds do.  Another name for sphinx moth is hawk moth, due to their long narrow wings and powerful flight.

Two years ago I found a rustic sphinx moth on the ground under the vitex tree.  It held onto my fingers, exercising its wings, having perhaps just emerged from underground and not able to fly yet.

14 second video of the rustic sphinx moth
(noisy bird sounds in background)

rustic sphinx moth

Here's a different kind of sphinx moth, the white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata) clinging to the stucco wall below the porch light:

white-lined sphinx moth

I've just mentioned four types of hawkmoths but today I learned that there are about 1400 species of hawkmoths!