Friday, September 28, 2007

The Silver-spotted Skipper

A few days ago I noticed a neat butterfly hanging around our backyard, attracted to our basil plants and our sedum. This little flying creature was a silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus). This species is really easy to identify, and they are fairly common. I've seen them throughout Ohio on my travels, mostly in Old fields and other weedy areas. Chances are that you have them in your backyard too. This species has a bright white or silver spot on the underside. This one was fun to photograph. One thing that I really noticed when I downloaded the images from my camera was its tongue, or what I'm guessing may be more properly be called its proboscis.

 


Look at that tounge reach into the basil flower. I wonder what the nectar of a basil plant tastes like? Is this bug getting pesto for dinner?

 

 


This skipper would work the flowers from all angles. I watched and photographed it for about ten minutes before the sun dipped below the trees. Megan and I walked down to the river, and I saw this great blue heron. I showed her some of the other pictures, and she was like "when did you take that one! I didn't see that." We consistently see herons in the river here in the heart of the City of Columbus. A good sign.

 
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2 comments:

  1. Yea, better to have the blue herons in the big Olentangy, than in my small back yard pond! I'm still anxiously waiting to find out what the mystery animal in the river was yesterday?????
    Mom

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  2. The mystery animal will be revealed soon............Stay tuned. I actually found another relative of the mystery animal this past weekend.....

    Tom

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