I’ve spent a fair amount of time paying attention to Baccharis pilularis galls, and don’t recall ever seeing any that looked like this.
Hey @crudlynaturephotos, do you have any idea what made the galls? If not, would you be cool with posting the photos (or letting me post the photos) to bugguide.net? I bet Charley Eiseman would have a good idea what made them.
I didn’t want to bother this butterfly at the time, and shoving my phone at it to snap the photo was already potentially bothersome, so I left it alone without waiting to get a look at the upper surface of its wings. But it has come to my attention (thanks to a helpful user on bugguide) that this was probably a Silvery Blue, which means this is what I would have seen had I waited:
Once upon a time (November 2017), I came upon a large hive covered in lovely stripey friends, and I took a photo. Unfortunately, I was still new to my camera, and I didn’t realize until I uploaded the photos that my focus depth was off. Oh no!
I uploaded my photos to iNaturalist, identified the friends as honeybees, and went on my way. Except, I was told that this was not a honeybee nest, and the bees had likely made this hive a temporary home while searching for a new one.
Unsatisfied, I returned the next day, determined to get better photos of the nest. I got them.
They weren’t bees temporarily taking up residence in an abandoned paper wasp nest. They were Mexican Honey Wasps, who make a big, elaborate paper nests. And also, honey. Yes, wasps that eat honey. Oh yeah, and they also eat pest insects that damage food crops, and it’s believed that these wasps were responsible for pollinating avocados before honeybees were introduced from Europe.
But anyway, I’m digressing.
I don’t see these wasps very often. Besides on that nest, I haven’t really seen them elsewhere.
Until earlier this week. Guess who visited my garden?
I have an Elderberry bush baby growing (it’s not even a year old yet). And it would appear that Elderberry plants have nectaries–those little knobby things where the leaves attach to the stem by my fingers are the nectaries. Think of nectaries as little plant nipples that let insects drink nectar direct from the tap. Ants and wasps can’t get enough of them. While I was taking these pictures, I had two other wasp species wandering through this bush for the nectaries!
But that wasp up there?
Going to town on the nectaries here?
Mexican Honey Wasp
I’m going to be so excited if their nest ends up being in my yard! They’d be smart to put one in there! So many bugs for them to eat! So much delicious nectar!
I love my yard. I’m at 989 species right now. So close to 1,000.
The Painted Ladies are migrating; according to news articles something like a billion butterflies are currently flying north through coastal southern California. At work in Playa Vista yesterday I went to the Starbucks on Jefferson and while waiting for my order I looked out the window and counted butterflies. I estimated twice, and got roughly 200 per minute flying through the intersection. They seemed to come in waves that corresponded to the traffic signals; I think the butterflies are smart enough not to cross against LA traffic. Or maybe it’s an effect of the wind the cars and trucks make, and the butterflies are just being carried along?
Back in Carp today I hiked the Franklin Trail at lunch and watched the same migration. This Painted Lady paused to refuel from the Blue Dicks blossoms in the Thomas Fire burn scar.
