Eggplants and Insects

Naughty little conehead eating my eggplant leaves!  Must say, it was too impressive to do anything but take pictures of it.  :~)  Favorite bug ID website here.

Busy little bumblebee collecting precious stores of pollen from my eggplant flowers (which are a bit more intense in coler due to adjusting tonal levels with my picture software).  Look at those bundles of pollen on its quarters!  Did you know that bees pack pollen grains into the tiny hairs on their back legs?  Pollen baskets!  They feed their young with pollen.  :~)

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

The easiest way to distinguish Black Swallowtails from Spicebush Swallowtails (the two species that are most often confused, especially if you don't have the plants, and thus caterpillars, to rely on--as those are quite different) is by the yellow spotting on the topside wings.  Black Swallowtails have yellow spotting ABOVE the blue, while Spicebush's is typically below the blue, if at all present!  'Course, that's the case with the males, anyway.  Females are a whole different thing (but aren't we always!  Ha!).

There are lots of great sites online to check into when looking for butterflies.  But you probably already know this.

Have a great day -- thanks for visiting!

Hanging annual (in NH, anyway) is Lantana.