Dilemma, do I bring them in and hope that they will make it through the grandkids while we are gone, or leave them outside to hopefully survive the elements and evade any predators?
I decided to not take a chance with the kids, and left them on the bush. When I returned from PA, I checked the Spicebush and this is what I found.
Not just one, but two empty leaves where they had been nesting. As I didn't see any signs of them near the original leaves, I just figured they were lost either to the weather (we had that awful thunderstorm and flooding that week) or to predators.
Imagine my surprise and gratitude when I found one of them the following week and the other a week later. They had each traveled to a different spot on the bush, and were both safe. I took one in and let the other stay outside to see how it would fare.
After a harvest of additional Monarch eggs I found these eggs also on Milkweed.
I took them in to see what would happen and they did hatch, with tiny black insects hatching, but I forgot to keep an eye on them and the Milkweed got moldy so all had to get outside before I could identify them. It is fun to watch for eggs and see what they may develop into. If they are not caterpillars, I am usually not as interested, as I have my hands full with the butterflies. But as long as you have the host plant you can keep the insects to see what the larva turns into.
While in the garden recently, I came upon a fun specimen. I see one about once or twice a year, and they are never the same. This is a Walking Stick, which was in one of the plants I was working on recently.
This one is a Northern Walkingstick,Diapheromera femorata, nymph. Walkingsticks have a greatly elongated, almost cylindrical body. It has a long thorax and a long abdomen. it has long threadlike antennae on a tiny head. There are long, slender legs on the front, middle and rear portions of the thorax. Nymphs are green, becoming a twiglike brown at maturity. This camouflages it from predatory birds during the day. They are amazing creatures which are able to regenerate lost legs. This one was quite docile and very curious.
It wouldn't stay still for any photos! So I had to hold it to get some closeup shots of its very interesting body. here you can see a red and yellow stripes down the side of its body. I hadn't noticed it until I got up close and personal with it!
It got into quite a posture for me, which I thought was a defensive one, when I was holding it, and I was able to get it to pose in this apparent defensive position.
It moved its front legs to right beside its antennae, which I would imagine woudl make it be pretty much unseen on a green stem. Isn't nature quite wonderful, with so much variety to seek out all over.
On a walk in the woods I was browsing for little specimens of nature, and took a closer look at this decaying long along my path.
I noticed this little wormlike creature, which found its own little niche in the great big woods!
There is so much to be discovered just outside your home. All it takes is the time to walk around and look closely at what is right there for us to discover, be it a new creature, or an old friend.
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