bugs plus

Not much on the milkweed now, only a few monarch caterpillars- I did see a bright, new-looking monarch butterfly cross the yard the other day so hope some of them made their transformation.

More swallowtail caterpillars- this one eating carrot foliage

Three on the rue today, this one showing its horns-

Fuzzy woolly bear caterpillar on joe pye weed leaf

Alligator-looking aphid eater on one of my newly-sprouting milkweed cuttings- a ladybug nymph!

Evidence of a beneficial- trimming the boxwood out front a few days ago I found this tiny mud-dauber nest on a sprig. Wasp.

In the pest department- my tokyo bekana continue to get eaten up in the garden, even though I'm catching crickets and slugs in my yeast traps.

Hand-picking, also found a large brown cutworm, and these larvae. I see them every year but still not sure what they are. My fishes don't like the taste of these (whereas they eagerly eat earthworms, mosquitoes and cabbage loopers!)

Best garden helper- whom I found as I was leaning in to photograph the ranks of fungi that's eating up my old cherry stump

I didn't see him on the stump, only the motion as he leaped away into the turtlehead patch-

it's the leopard frog!

I was out there to photograph those jack-o-lantern mushrooms that made an appearance again- but I missed their brightest glory. Day I stepped out with the camera they were starting to shrivel and turn dark. Next day, they melted into an ugly brown, blackened mess that stank like a dead animal- I figured that out when I kept looking for rabbit or bird remains from the smell, and saw flies around the fungi puddle. Threw a pile of pulled weeds over it, that masked it enough to ignore.

cicadas

Found another of the camouflague ones- it's got a very bronze patch on the back. Tried to see what color the eyes- brown or greenish but hard to tell. I think green? that would make it the Eastern scissor grinder.

Also found a different cicada species- thought I'd been hearing more than one voice in their strident clamour this summer. This one the thorax is solid dark color, has two white spots and olive green markings.

First time I noticed how beautiful the wing structure shades from light green to olive green to russet brown to black

Eyes are definitely green. It held so still I was able to get a very close photo. Pretty certain this one is the swamp cicada, or morning cicada- Neotibicen tibicen tibicen. 

milkweed cuttings

A lot of the milkweed stems are sans leaves now, all eaten up. I started cutting the bare stems off the plants, then read how easy it is to root cuttings for propagation. So I tried it. It's only been a few days- no sign of roots in the jar of water yet, but there's new leaves sprouting!

houseplants in my room

The zebrina has completely covered top of little bookshelf by one window. Needs a trim now!

Goldfish plant

has plenty more 'goldfish' flowers

Happiest I am of the 'lipstick' plant.

A week ago I noticed what looked like buds:

Yes, it's flowering!

more window tank pics

because I took a bunch more yesterday but didn't post them all. Full tank shot is hard to get-

here's a closer one

Vallisneria is actually grown past midlevel now, but I wonder how it will do when winter light comes

Short end from one side (here comes Laddie to inspect my activity)

Short end the other side- dominated by anubias, buce on the substrate

More angled shot, showing off the crypt moehlmanii. And my paradise fish again. Hm, I need to clean the tank glass.

notes on the tanks

Earlier this week we had power outages. I was on the verge of plugging in the noisy battery-operated air pumps to run the aquariums when it kicked back on again, so all was okay. I did extra water changes on most of the tanks. My angel has ragged fins again- especially the dorsal. It's not from the tanks being sans filter for hours- they were starting to look a little tatty before then. Sigh. She doesn't turn pale or flee and run into the walls anymore, so I do think that having tetra companions helped her feel secure in the tank. She even circles back and approaches the front to watch me during maintenance, where before she'd hide in a corner until after I was done. But now I'm starting to wonder if the black skirt tetras are nipping her fins after all. 

Today I felt like doing stuff to the window tank, so I did. Trimmed and replanted a bunch of hornwort stems, multiplying them again. 

Trimmed and replanted top of a submerged piece parrot's feather. Took out and threw in the compost all the unhappy-looking bits of windelov java  on rocks. They never do great in here, plenty other plants doing well now, so why am I keeping them. Used the rocks to prop up either end of the driftwood bolbitis fern is growing on. 

So now the arch clears the substrate more, and I can admire the fern better.

Laddie looks great. But yesterday I saw him suddenly jerk about and flash against the uplift tube. I dread the thought he has gill flukes again. Hope it was just a momentary irritant of some other kind. He's super eager to eat and lively, inspecting things all levels of the tank, seems to feel fine. Going to feed him garlic tomorrow.

Started pegging down hornwort trimmings from the angel tank in the 20H. For more plant mass. 

The white cloud minnows are almost three months old, and I've started to see flirty behavior- some of them flaring, waggling the pectorals and diving into the subwassertang. Pretty sure those are the males. They're supposed to be mature at six months, so can't actually be breeding already? I need to start sorting out those I want to keep . . . 

Earlier this week I netted out ten that have truncated dorsal fins- as if someone cut off the back half. 

I kept them in the mesh box that's still been sitting in the 20H, and fed two a day to the angelfish. It's a very quick end for them. My youngest would be unhappy if she knew I'm feeding the unwanted fry to my angelfish. I won't tell- I doubt she'll notice there's fewer white clouds in the 20H anyway. My friend who was going to take some of the white cloud fry had to downsize his tanks, so now I'm not sure if I will be able to re-home. Uneasy to have strangers come to the house during time of covid. All the ones that don't move into my window tank, might just become angel food . . . 

in the house

Recently I repotted my arrowhead

and the crazy 'rodeo drive' coleus. It's the first time I kept one all season as an indoor plant.

Compare to the foliage on the two outside (trimmed this bit off the porch plant):

This one in the shade of upended coldframe has gotten leggy- I moved it to a brighter spot.

For some reason I haven't become fond of the aglaonema. It keeps getting pale leaves that drop off- I thought bugs and sprayed, maybe overwatering? It also needs a larger pot but I haven't got around to it. 

However! It's flowering. 

Looks like the flower spathe my anubias used to make in the aquarium.

Nearby- the plants that live under my window tank- they don't usually get shown off here. The creeping charlie is doing well now

Heartleaf philodendron has a few new leaves

Peace lily hasn't filled in much yet, but does look better than has in the past

Of all the plants I got at the library swap, this begonia is now my favorite. It got tall enough I finally pinched off the uppermost shoot to make it branch out. Also needs repotting...

some wildlife

Seen in my garden today. Very small butterfly on the nepitella.

Larger swallowtail caterpillar on the rue

The frog is still in my pole beans!

Little jumping spider on tithonia leaf.

Larger, very striking spider on pokeweed that's grown up through the joe pye weed. Yellow garden spider?

 Young skink on the deck stairs- took a photo of him leaning over the railing.

And one of this year's cicada population. I can't tell if it's the dog-day cicada, eastern scissor-grinder, or Linne's cicada. Looking up what cicada species is supposed to emerge in 2020 was unhelpful- sources I find say it's Brood IX, and photos accompanying those reports have orange like the ones I saw 2017. The site I found cicada species in Virginia listed, didn't tell me what years they emerge. So I dunno. But I do note that this one has a short pointy abdomen, a green collar, and a rather kinda cool camouflage pattern.