Glamorous Moths #7 – Pine Carpenterworm Givira lotta, the Pine Carpenterworm moth. I have a soft spot for large, fuzzy moths. This one is a member of the Carpenter and Leopard moths. From Wikipedia: The Cossidae, the cossid millers or carpenter millers, make up a family of mostly large miller moths. This family contains over 110 genera with almost 700 knownContinue reading “Glamorous Moths #7 – Pine Carpenterworm”
Glamorous Moths #6 – Rothschildia Silk Moth Our sixth featured moth is Rothschildia cinctus. They are found from southern Arizona to Panama. According to Wikipedia: Saturniinae is a subfamily of the family Saturniidae. They are commonly known as emperor moths or wild silk moths. They are easily spotted by the eyespots on the upper surface of their wings. Some exhibit realistic eye-likeContinue reading “Glamorous Moths #6 – Rothschildia Silk Moth”
Musings from an Albuquerque Pollinator Paradise If you’re reading this from New Mexico, the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge Grand Opening of Visitor Center and 10th Birthday is on Saturday, September 10th, about a month away. I hope you’ll join us! It’s summer in New Mexico and it’s hot and dry. Not as hot as Phoenix, thankfully! We received niceContinue reading “Musings from an Albuquerque Pollinator Paradise”
Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden 7June22 Blood-colored Milkweed Bug, Tarantula Hawk Wasp, Queen Butterfly, Ceraunus Blue Butterfly, Great Horned Owl The beauty of a pollinator garden is a two-edged wand: The reward of knowing you are contributing to the health of the ecosystem that you inhabit The treasure hunt of discovering the web of characters that visit your paradise InContinue reading “Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden”
Glamorous Moths #5 – Penstemonia The way that gardeners feel about moths and butterflies is often quite different, despite how closely related they are. We are happy to grow milkweed to attract Monarchs and allow the caterpillars to devour whole plants. Weed is in the name milkweed, so I think we value the plant more for its role in theContinue reading “Glamorous Moths #5 – Penstemonia”
Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden Design: North Side Yard Welcome back! This is the second installment in this series – in the previous post I presented the history of the project and the design considerations for the South Side Yard – you can view that post here. The side yard on the north side of the house has two separateContinue reading “Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden”
Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden Join us for this series where we’ll cover a Phoenix Pollinator Garden from design to planting to pollinator observations.
Glamorous Moths #4 – Southern Flannel Moth Wide ranging across the southern USA and northern Mexico, the Southern Flannel moth, Megalopyge opercularis, is this week’s featured moth. Read more here, if you’re interested: Megalopyge opercularis (ufl.edu). Flannel moths are in Superfamily Zygaenoidea with Jewel Caterpillar moths, like Dalcerides. It’s larval food plants are mostly oak trees and some Manzanita species in ArizonaContinue reading “Glamorous Moths #4 – Southern Flannel Moth”
Glamorous Moths #3 – ‘Colorado’ Yucca Moth This is the third post in a semi-regular series of interesting, colorful, and unique moths of Arizona and New Mexico. Today, I’d like to introduce you to yucca moths. Yucca moths are in the Family Prodoxidae and found across the USA and Mexico. They are a spring and summer moth, timing their flights with blooms ofContinue reading “Glamorous Moths #3 – ‘Colorado’ Yucca Moth”
Glamorous Moths #2 – White-lined Sphinx This is the second post in a semi-regular series of interesting, colorful, and unique moths of Arizona and New Mexico. Today’s inspiration comes from a brief encounter last Friday. I was at an orchard and a White-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata), was getting nectar from plum flowers mid-afternoon. These strong fliers are members of FamilyContinue reading “Glamorous Moths #2 – White-lined Sphinx”
Glamorous Moths #1 – Dalcerides ingenita This is the first post in a new, semi-regular series of interesting, colorful, and unique moths of Arizona and New Mexico. The first post is inspired by Ronald Parry’s talk I saw on Zoom last week (recording here on Youtube). In the USA, the label “moths” represent over 90% of all Lepidoptera species, but butterfliesContinue reading “Glamorous Moths #1 – Dalcerides ingenita”
What should I plant for the most pollinators? As much as possible! Okay, that’s not much of an answer. First, which kinds of pollinators do you want to attract? Hummingbirds – red tubular Penstemon and Acanthus flowers work great. Bees – sunflowers are your best bet. Butterflies and moths aren’t so picky, but you’ll want to provide host plants, like milkweed for Monarchs.Continue reading “What should I plant for the most pollinators?”
