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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 8, 2010 2:58:56 GMT
This morning I was standing out on the drive chatting with the dog. I was aware of a low humming buzz and Ginger was following it with his eyes. This is totally out of the ordinary, as he is blase to a fault. ("A mouse! Get the mouse, Ginger!" ~ "*yawn*") So after teasing him about being distracted by a hummingbird, which are commonplace in our yard, I finally look around. Holy big giant bug, garden lovers! Here the thing is. I lucked out and got his normal-sized cousin in a couple of the pictures. The flowers are loquat, to give an idea of scale.     |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2010 3:05:06 GMT
I believe it's a BEE,no? It looks similar to a horned bee I saw on a website recently. Great pics BTW Bixa!!  |
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 8, 2010 3:37:32 GMT
Wow -- that does look like it. Does the one in your picture have color on the body, though? I didn't think anyone could identify it. It acted like a bee and its body is bee-ish, but those wings. I was thrilled with the accidental, almost-in-focus normal bee in my last picture.
Well, I looked it up, and can't find anything just like it, but it must certainly be a bee, don't you see? ;D
Here's a video from North Dakota -- very drab compared to my guy, who is festive and Mexican.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 9, 2010 14:45:20 GMT
I was thrilled with the accidental, almost-in-focus normal bee in my last picture. I was doing OK till you pointed out the tiny honey bee next to your giant mystery insect. Now I'm hyperventilating. Gotta run! |
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Post by Kimby on Jul 9, 2010 14:51:45 GMT
BTW, bixa, please avoid getting stung:  (this is a 20 year old woman who was stung multiple times - who says bee phobia is irrational?) |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2010 23:38:50 GMT
 this one looks festive,not quite like yours Bixa,but, I think we're on the right track here! |
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 10, 2010 0:25:49 GMT
I really appreciate your being on the case. Here is an amazing resource I found, although I haven't even scratched the surface yet. You'll see why when you open the link. The abundance and excellence of the photos & info are amazing: bugguide.net/node/view/59I'm going to start with carpenter bees. Here is one of the pictures I got by going to google images & searching "mexican bees" I really showed my age by being able to identify all of them. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2010 3:22:08 GMT
;D,that's funny!! The bug link is an excellent reference. I thought that the horns/antennae on your guy were a giveaway,and as I said, I had just recently been browsing a bee site specifically looking for the horned bees. So, I just googled,horned bees. There is a Mexican horned bee I found but I can't access the picture.  . Have you seen it return? Or have you seen any others?  |
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 10, 2010 4:21:08 GMT
It's been raining a lot here, but I was doing some work in the yard yesterday while the sun was out and heard the thing, or one just like it, again. I've been finding some incredible sites and info, even though I haven't identified the bee yet. This one is amazing. It has a beekeeping manual download that I posted to the Casimira beekeeping thread. |
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Post by Kimby on Jul 12, 2010 15:29:06 GMT
I was doing some work in the yard yesterday while the sun was out and heard the thing, or one just like it, again The pictures were bad enough, but the thought of the SOUND of that giant hovercraft of a bee being audible when you were too far away to see it has this bee-phobe quivering! Identify it already, and make it go away!  |
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Post by Kimby on Jul 12, 2010 15:34:54 GMT
Here is one of the pictures I got by going to google images & searching "mexican bees" I really showed my age by being able to identify all of them. Me, too. SNL has received more Emmy award nominations than any other US TV show, BTW. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 23, 2010 16:56:55 GMT
Here is a home-front mini drama. I have some containers with rain water on my porch and went out the other morning to see small thrashings in one. The sight of a brown bug belly made me think it was a r :-Xach, which meant I'd need to slosh it quickly out of there without really looking. Luckily I glanced again and saw what a fascinating creature it was. Whew ...... didn't think I'd make it ....... land, at last! Lemme get situated -- I'm soaked. Fluffing myself out a bit will help. Once I get my face all dried off, I'll be good to go! |
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Post by bjd on Jul 23, 2010 17:02:16 GMT
Bixa, maybe your giant bee is one of those African bees that were supposed to come towards N America or Europe? There were a lot of scare stories about them a few years ago.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 10, 2011 22:58:43 GMT
So there I am at the potting table a couple of days ago, minding my own business. I was merrily tipping plants out of pots or the crummy bags & plastic containers in which they'd been sold, matching them to new pots, and trying to scrape together enough of my dwindling dirt supply to serve their needs. Plant in left hand & upended pot in right, out of the corner of my left eye I see the dirt on the table moving. eek!mugshots:     To give you an idea of the size of the creature, I finally scooped it up on a soup spoon -- the elongated kind, not the round kind -- so I could give it to the little girl next door. If filled the spoon. |
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Post by Kimby on Jul 11, 2011 19:11:06 GMT
And what will the little girl do with this rather hideous example of creation?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2011 21:38:10 GMT
Caterpillars are so gross looking -- I wonder why. I mean I wonder what provokes the reaction in us since we are neither their predators nor their prey. But we don't like to touch them, we don't like the way they move, they usually have fiendishly scary faces with fake eyes to freak us out. What's with them? |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2011 16:32:30 GMT
I am utterly fascinated by the many appearances these guys take on. Much of their "ugliness" is meant to be unappealing and is part of their defense system to avoid predation. What I'm most fascinated by is their mimicry of other forms of nature that are threatening in appearance,the spines, (some of the fiercer looking spined ones don't sting,many do though )snake like faces,blending into the landscape with highly evolved complex ability to camouflage themselves. And,then, they go into metamorphosis and become winged butterflies or moths.
Bixa, do you see any evidence of plant damage from this fella pictured?
I tried to find out what is was in one of my guides but the guide is limited to Eastern N.A.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 11, 2011 4:48:25 GMT
Sorry for the tardy response to the other posts. That's when I was getting ready to go out of town, so am only now seeing them.
Kimby, I imagine that caterpillar is in the big cocoon in the sky by now.
Kerouac, I don't find caterpillars that gross looking, but what's inside of them provokes a heavy eewwww factor in me.
Casimira, I never saw evidence of damage, but I think that's because the little fish-faced fatty hitchhiked in on a newly-bought plant.
At any rate, I have something completely new & different to show now. I was outside this evening yakking on the phone without my glasses on & noticed what I thought was strangely pale lichen on the abused loquat tree. Then the lichen moved. Erg! I finished the call & scampered for the camera (& my glasses).
WARNING: do not watch the video if you're creeped out by insect mouth parts & weird buggy squirming.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 11, 2011 5:25:55 GMT
There were two of these creatures on the tree, plus a finished cocoon. On the right are the two creatures on the tree. That picture makes them look fairly solid, but the better photos will show how very fluffy they are. Some background: it's been raining daily for at least a month here in southern Mexico. I went out of town for the past two weeks, arriving home on Sunday. The garden is pretty overgrown & it's been quite hot in the daytime, so all kinds of things might have gone on without my knowing. Below is a picture of the finished, well-made cocoon, although there are a couple of smaller, less defined ones as well. I would really appreciate an ID on these caterpillars, or some guidance as to how I could identify them. I prefer to live and let live in the garden, but I need to know if these triffids are something that could threaten my little patch of Eden.. Here's where I am: The mouth part out of which I assume those strands are emerging:  A couple of pics to show size & fluffiness. That's a standard Bic ballpoint pen with a black plastic cap taped to the tree next to the caterpillar.  |
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Post by tod2 on Aug 11, 2011 8:18:11 GMT
What a beauty! Reminds me of a maltese poodle ;D Bixa, what about getting an ID from this website: bugguide.net/node/view/15740I am really interested to find out more about this hairy creature! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2011 9:18:26 GMT
I wonder what it's trying to look like (since there is always a reason for these outer coatings).
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 14, 2011 20:58:00 GMT
Thanks for that link, Tod. It's a great website, but I couldn't find anything even close to the flat furry monster. Good point, Kerouac, especially since it doesn't in the least resemble the tree bark. This thing gave me the willies. I've seen them before, but this one was big & way too close to me. This, like the big-headed caterpillar, was scuttling across the potting table. That table is under a tree, but I also dump out purchased plants there, so it could have come in on one of those. I kept trying to get a photo of the head, but the little bugger kept coming right at the camera lens!   Here it obligingly lined up with the 4" tile I put in for size comparison.  But what the heck is it? Is it some kind of centipede? And, NO, I did not pick it up to see if it had little legs. It moves really fast and seems completely round, but surely there are legs under there. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 17, 2011 17:36:32 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Apr 24, 2015 11:32:56 GMT
Stumbled on this old thread and am wondering if bixa is still running into so many interesting critters in her current abode.
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Post by tod2 on May 5, 2015 12:54:52 GMT
Got a shot of this bumblebee....at least I think it is! It was on my Asian bean flowers.  |
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Post by tod2 on Mar 23, 2016 14:16:59 GMT
Look who was trying to hitch a ride on my car door this morning! Isn't it beautiful. I'm trying to google the name but so far can only call it a "camouflage moth". imageshack.com/a/img923/2426/lSW4LA.jpg |
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Post by htmb on Mar 23, 2016 14:36:25 GMT
It is gorgeous!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2016 19:03:56 GMT
It is a species of what is known as a Sphinx moth, generally nocturnal and great pollinators of plants such as Bixa's lovely Epiphyllium, mirabilis peruviana (4o'clocks).
There's one species known as the "hummingbird moth" that comes out at dusk and is very reminiscent of a hummingbird sans the colors.
we have quite a few of them.
They will often land on a surface and stay there, not moving for days.
When I first saw this occur, I tried giving it a gentle nudge.
It didn't move and we discovered it was quite common.
I sprayed one with a clear acrylic polyurethene and displayed it .
It t freaked some people out...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2016 2:50:34 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Mar 24, 2016 12:23:09 GMT
Thanks for the info - I have hundreds of 4 O'Clocks in the garden so I am guessing that is what is was eating.
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