Noctuidae Moths - Yökköset
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Photo 2 from the Des Moines Series
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Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden
"Welcome to the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden where exploring, explaining and celebrating the world of plants is our mission. Tropical and temperate gardens make us an oasis in the heart of downtown Des Moines. Whether you visit on your own or explore with a group, you will find the Botanical Garden a place where you can learn about fascinating plants, hone your gardening skills or immerse yourself in beautiful gardens."
Named for its rigorous patrol of hedges and woodland rides, the gatekeeper butterfly is a prime pollinator. Look for them sipping nectar on sunny days in the summer.
This butterfly rests with its wings open, so the underside is less frequently visible. The male, shown here, has broad sex brands, comprising scent-producing scales known as androconia, on its forewings; the female has no such strips and is evidently much more of an orange butterfly. Unlike many 'browns', the Gatekeeper often rests with its wings open, which is very helpful when you are trying to determine the gender of a Gatekeeper. There is a wingspan difference between the sexes - but who can estimate size with any degree of accuracy when a butterfly is in flight? Males, with their wingspan typically 4cm, are slightly smaller than females, which usually have a wingspan of about 4.5cm
.Also known as the Hedge Brown butterfly, the Gatekeeper is fond of brambly hedgerows and ragwort-infested scrubland where nectar-bearing flowers are plentiful.
This short-lived butterfly of high summer emerges from the beginning of July onwards but by the end of August there are very few if any left to see.
Gatekeepers are seen throughout England, but they are more abundant in southern counties. In Wales the Gatekeeper is fairly common in the south and west but is less frequently seen the further north you go. In Scotland the Gatekeeper is seen very rarely, and the same is true of most of Ireland, although along the coastal strip of southern Ireland there are reasonable numbers of this lovely golden butterfly.
Lifecycle
The larval foodplants of the Gatekeeper are various grasses, in particular the various bents (Agrostis spp), meadow-grasses (Poa spp) and fescues (Festuca spp). The egg-laying habitat is rough grassland at hedged field margins, in woodland rides, fire breaks and larger clearings, and in scrubby grassland and wasteland where bushes have sprung up among grasses.
Female Gatekeepers drop their straw-yellow eggs from the air onto or near to suitable grass tussocks, generally in the shade of a small bush or a hedge. The eggs darken and become mottled brown-grey as, over a period of two to three weeks, the larvae develop inside the egg case. Once they have eaten their way out of the egg case, the tiny caterpillars consume their foodplant during daylight. After the first moult, the caterpillars crawl deep down into the base of their grass tussock and there they hibernate until the following spring. On waking, the green (sometimes brown) caterpillars become nocturnal feeders. They pupate in June or early July after their fourth moult, and the adult butterflies emerge from their chrysalises about three weeks later.
There are small white spots in the grey-brown mottling on the hindwing of the Gatekeeper. The Southern Gatekeeper, Pyronia cecila, is similar, but it has a more silvery mottled underside to its rear hindwings without the white spots.
A new tree is in the world. He's growing out of the ancient remains of his ancestor. Older trees will protect him, cover him from storms and winds. Hopefully, new life cycle has begun, hopefully, it will last for hundred years.
Achterhoekerweg, Hooglanderveen, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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En esta foto presento el ciclo vital completo de la mariposa Zegris eupheme, aclaro que tras ser fotografiada, la pasada primavera, la crisálida fue de nuevo liberada en su lugar de origen en Madrid, tenía varias monitorizadas pero el confinamiento me impedirá fotografiar el momento de la emergencia.
This is a piece of lichen on our plum tree, showing what I think are apothecia. These are the fruiting bodies of the fungal part of the partnership, usually seen as an open, saucer-shaped or cup-shaped body. Apparently the algal part doesn't fruit or reproduce.
Holly blue / Celastrina argiolus
The holly blue is a butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family and is native to the Palearctic and North America. The holly blue has pale silver-blue wings spotted with pale ivory dots.With a 3cm wingspan and sky blue upper wings bordered in black (narrow borders in males and broad borders in females), the Holly Blue is one of the most distinctive of the so-called 'blues'. The underwings are a very pale ivory-blue with black spots. The spring-emerging adults fly in April, May and June and are commonly seen in scrubby grasslands, woodland edges and parks.
What does a holly blue butterfly look like?
The holly blue is a bright blue butterfly; females have black wing edges. It is smaller than the very rare large blue, and a lot larger than the tiny small blue. It is distinguished from all the other blues by the black spots on its silvery-blue underside - other blues sport orange spots.
Lifecycle
Eggs are laid singly at the base of Holly buds, and the green catterpillars (often with pinkish-brown markings) grow to a length of 1.2cm within three weeks; they then pupate as brown crysalises some 9mm in length attached to a leaf or a stem. Adults emerge in spring within typically two to three weeks, depending on temperature. In Britain and Ireland there is also a summer brood that can be seen on the wing from late June to early October. This butterfly overwinters in its pupal state.
What do holly blue butterflies eat?
Caterpillars: feed on the flower buds of holly and ivy. The larvae bore into the side of the bud and eat the contents. Adults: feed on nectar, tree sap and juice from rotting fruit and carrion.
Where do holly blue butterflies lay their eggs?
The white eggs are laid singly at the base of unopened flower buds of the foodplant. Eggs laid in spring are typically laid on Holly, whereas the summer eggs are typically laid on Ivy.
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Here is the same sunflower , not in the snow, in her prime last July. I only grew one this year because the bunnies ate the seedlings.(that's their job)
- Exoskeleton of dragonfly nymph -
After the end of gravel mining in the middle of the last century, the nature returned to what the gravel dredgers had taken from it. Gradually the pits filled up with groundwater over time and a beautiful lake landscape developed.
The task of the futuristic building in the background is to introduce the visitors to the natural environment of the region on a journey of discovery.