A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
I am an public elementary school teacher in an environmentally focused school, and an NPS Interpretive Ranger.
Thank you, Livan! What an interesting insect. After your post, I searched the internet and found more information (except which species). I learned that this insect stays in the larval form (called a hellgrammite) for years until it pupates over the winter. When it emerges as an adult the following year, it lives only 7 days...just long enough to mate and produce a new batch of eggs. We will call it Corydalus sp. for now.
Beautiful caterpillar, and great photograph! But I think the species name is incorrect. When I looked up the species name above, I found a beautiful sphinx moth with a caterpillar that looks very different from this one. Typical sphinx moth larva with a "horn" at the end of the abdomen, and a longer cylindrical body without the enlarged thorax. More drab in color. I researched it because I was curious if it is related to the Giant Swallowtail butterfly. They share some visual characteristics.
In the US, the common name for this species is "winter wren". But we all agree on the species, so that's good. I love Ireland. I was in your area in 2002. Beautiful!
In the US, we have several species of wrens. In the southwest desert we have the cactus wren, which tends to get into the same kind of predicaments.
The plants in the back are yuccas.
Agaves have serrated leaf edges with sharp spines. They only bloom once, at which time they begin to die. Aloes do not have spines along the edges of their leaves. I believe this is a cultivated variety of A. americana, which I believe is native to Southern Mexico/Central America.
This one might have been a parent because we saw a much smaller one last night!
I'm not good with identifying sparrows, but could this be a juvenile lark sparrow or a song sparrow subspecies (race?).
It looks like one of our spiny lizards. Both the Desert Spiny Lizard and Clark's Spiny Lizard males have blue patches on their bellies and throats and a black wedge on their shoulders. If you see it again, look at the feet. Clark's has black stripes above the toes. I like your picture. They are so fast, I have had trouble catching a photo of one!
