Wednesday, August 18, 2010

THREE FOR THURSDAY: 3 INSECT VISITORS TO TROPICAL TEXANA

Thanks again to Cindy from My Corner of Katy for thinking of this great idea. There are a number of us with this Thursday format, so why not join in? See my Blog Favorites and please go visit Cindy's  great garden! :-)

All gardeners know that the more time you spend observing, the more you see in a garden, even one that you  know inside and out. Here are three visitors we had this summer AND that held still long enough for me to photograph.
Always a favorite, this giant swallowtail just suddenly decided to land and soak up some sun. Fortunately, I had my camera.
If there are citrus trees in your neighborhood, chances are you'll see this visitor. I see them weekly and sometimes daily.

Looks scary, doesn't it? It was sucking on a fly when I first saw him. This Robber Fly is considered a good guy since they eat mosquitoes and flies.  The larvae live in soil and eat grubs and grasshopper eggs. My book on Texas insects says it can give a painful bite, so I didn't try to annoy him.
BTW: Click on the photo to enlarge and see his awesome 'feet'. He can catch prey by pouncing on them.

I wish this Green Fruit Beetle or Fig beetle had a cool name, but it doesn't. I see this member of the scarab family about once a year.
They are also considered good guys since the grubs live in soil and eat bad guys. The adults eat rotten fruit.
Latin name: Cotinis mutabilis, formerly known as Cotinis texana! (Wow!)
The underside is outstandingly irridescent and beautiful. He crawled away before I decided to go back outside and flip him over for another picture. I find them in our compost pile.
That's my Three for Thursday. Your turn. :0)

3 comments:

  1. Great photos of all three! I know the swallowtails well, but wasn't familiar with the other two guys. I'll keep an eye out for them now.

    Thanks for joining in on Three for Thursday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marvellous photos ... I've never heard of the Robber Fly before. That one is not all that good-looking ... the feet are certainly impressive! Loved the colours on the Green Fruit Beetle and the Swallowtail is lovely.

    Thanks so much for dropping by to visit my blog ... I'm glad you enjoyed the Inside Out View of my garden.

    I added a message about creating a playlist for you blog ... it's quite easy to do if you visit:
    http://www.mixpod.com/

    I just played around for a while and managed to not only create several playlists, but also learned how to post them onto my blog ... easy! Do try it out. Just make sure you have an idea of the type of music you want to add ... it's difficult otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The lesson? Never venture into the garden without a camera! Great pix!

    ReplyDelete

I always appreciate your comments & questions! Happy Gardening from David/ Tropical Texana

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