Nature Moncton Nature News: July 9 2020

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, July 09, 2020 (Thursday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: Brian Stone bjpstone@gmail.com

Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)

** Sometimes Mother Nature’s floral bouquets are hard to beat. Aldo Dorio sends a beachside photo of OXEYE DAISY, EVENING PRIMROSE, and BEACH WORMWOOD, aka Dusty Miller in bouquet presentation. The Dusty Miller is a non-native cultivar often used decoratively in home gardens and has escaped favouring seashore beaches and is now common at these sites. That Evening Primrose plant should be hosting its close associate the Primrose Moth, something very worth close watches for, and the Oxeye Daisies add a splash of colour.

** Brian Stone visited his favourite Milkweed patches on Wednesday to, as usual, find lots of activity there and nearby. A HONEYBEE [Abeille] was collecting nectar/pollen to show the POLLINIA/POLLINARIA structures that are specific to the blooms of some plant species including Milkweed with an attached explanation below from BugGuide.

“Pollinia and pollinaria are distinctive structures of the anthers (male parts of flowers) found in members of the Orchid family (Orchidaceae) and the Dogbane family (Apocynaceae...which now includes milkweeds of the former Asclepiadaceae). They often become attached to insects that visit flowers of these families, and are a critical part of the complex and fascinating pollination process for members of Orchidaceae and Apocynaceae”

A BIG POPLAR SPHINX MOTH, aka MODEST SPHINX MOTH was among the blooms as well as a HUMMINGBIRD CLEARWING MOTH and a VIRGINIA CTENUCHA MOTH was also visiting. A QUEEN ANNE’S LACE plant was in full bloom with one purple floret in the center. Folklore has it that it is from a drop of blood when Queen Anne was knitting lace and pricked her finger, however it is more likely a floret to attract pollinators!

** One has to wonder, as Chris Antle recently commented, where the Monarch Butterflies are with all the good things waiting for them.

** I am adding a few Moth photos that visited my moth light over the last few nights. Both the TWIN-SPOTTED SPHINX MOTH and SMALL-EYED SPHINX MOTH dropped by and I was lucky to have them show their hind wing eye spot (used to scare off photographers and the like!) The common FALSE CROCUS GEOMETER MOTH came by showing its pale yellow body and spots, being a medium sized moth. The smaller EASTERN TENT CATERPILLAR MOTH is appearing in numbers now as its earlier tent larval stage has passed.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton