acmon blue on naked buckwheat ~ 09/10/14 ~ Podere di Farfalla

mating acmon blue (male top, browner female bottom) on naked buckwheat

mating Icaricia acmon (aka Plebejus acmon) on Eriogonum nudum var. auriculatum
Polygonaceae

I mentioned in a previous mating acmon post on seacliff buckwheat from mid-July about how host plant associations cannot be assumed.  I'm trying to do a better job at documenting the butterfly, the plant, and the activity.  Here I found them on another type of buckwheat (one that was not evident to me back in July).  I was able to get a series of mating photos that made for a surprisingly graphic gif.  Unfortunately, after succumbing to a fit of giggles, I decided other people may not appreciate my crass animal p0rn humor (or it might get stolen and put on a site I would be embarrassed to show my grandmother, if you know what I mean).  And so, it's not included on Nature ID.  However, it was eye-opening to see how butterfly sexy parts actually fit together.  I never took such a close look before.

acmon blue laying egg on naked buckwheat
Icaricia acmon laying egg on Eriogonum nudum var. auriculatum

This is the true money shot for me.  Laying an egg on an identified host plant.  Although, as I witnessed this spring, females sometimes get their host plants mixed up.  No kidding.  It's apparently how insects regularly adapt to using introduced plants.  It's evolution in action.  At the time, I was encouraged to find the egg of my unusual sighting.  Ha!  I tried, I really did.  It's very much like looking for a needle in a haystack.  Miniaturized.  What's not always obvious from photos is exactly how small all of this is.  I seriously doubt I'll be able to get a clear picture of something as tiny as an acmon egg out in the wild, on a cliff, in bright sun, and the ever-present wind.  With my relatively recent need for reading glasses, I couldn't even see what the egg here looked like after the female did her quick drop off.  I'm starting to view television nature shows in an entirely different light now and not in a good way.  Instead of oohing and awing over nature, I'm wondering how the heck they managed to film whatever it is that they did.  Seriously.  Eh, I like my easy crappy photos.  So, on to the plant...

naked buckwheat / ear-shaped wild buckwheat

Eriogonum nudum var. auriculatum

Polygonaceae

While I already suspected which buckwheat this was, I used the plant list for Podere di Farfalla to narrow down the possibilities of buckwheats, from 256 spp./var. found in all of CA to just 6, plus 4 more from nearby Garland Ranch.  I looked at all the possibilities, and more, just to make sure it wasn't something I hadn't heard of before.

oblong leaves along lower part of stem, wavy margin, spider webby on top, 

and solidly fuzzy below

(my descriptive words, nothing to do with plant keys)

The official CNPS list for Garland Ranch shows another of the 14 var. of naked buckwheat (geez, there's a lot), sometimes called hairy flowered buckwheat or Fremont's wild buckwheat (E. nudum var. pubiflorum).  I took a close look at the few available photos online, and I think the leaves here look more like auriculatum than pubiflorum.  Leaf shape more determinate over level of fuzz on top?  It's a close call, and I could be wrong.  If anyone knows better, please tell me!

a step-back view 

(See?  Crappy.  Bright butterfly sun and waving plants in the wind do not mix.)

coast horned lizard ~ 08/07/14 ~ Podere di Farfalla

juvenile coast horned lizard
Phrynosoma blainvillii

It's August.  That means it's baby lizard time around these parts.  This one puffed itself up as I continued to follow it to the shade.  Unbothered, it can look quite flat and deflated.  Still, so tiny. Cute.  And, well camouflaged.  There's an unusual growth near its tail.  Don't know what that's about.

Can you find the horned lizard?

CA dogface ~ 07/17/14 ~ Podere di Farfalla

male California dogface nectaring on bull thistle

male Zerene eurydice nectaring on Cirsium vulgare

Asteraceae

(UC Irvine, Las Pilitas Nursery, Shapiro, old BOA)

Despite the fact our official state insect seems to fly practically all year around here (Monterey Co. and Pinnacles), I've only ever spotted this yellow butterfly a couple times.  It's frequently reported that its only larval host plant is false indigo (Amorpha californica).  Either that's not entirely correct, or plant folks generally don't bother looking for this native shrub.  I say this because the plant checklists for Podere di Farfalla and San Benito County strikingly do not include false indigo, notwithstanding the reported 10-month flight period of the CA dogface in these same areas.

As a note to myself, I want to be sure to not mistake the CA dogface for the superficially similar orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme), another butterfly I don't often see and have yet to photograph.

acmon blue on seacliff buckwheat ~ 07/17/14 ~ Podere di Farfalla

mating acmon (male left, browner female right) on seacliff buckwheat

mating Icaricia acmon (aka Plebejus acmon) on Eriogonum parvifolium (var. parvifolium)

Polygonaceae

Having both acmon blue sexes in the same photograph is very helpful, because I've had some difficulty distinguishing between them on their own, since lighting and wing angle can be so variable and deceptive.  Ya, I know, I've been told repeatedly, "Get a photograph of the topside (dorsal), then it's easy to tell them apart."  Ha!  As if it were that easy!  I'm thrilled whenever I can get any photograph at all that's not a total fuzzy blob.  Seriously.  And, after seeing numerous butterflies in a day, I never can remember if the topside of butterfly #34 was blue or brown while it flew away.  Maybe other people have an easier time of it?  This is only my second photo of mating butterflies that I've managed to get all year.  The first were Edith's checkerspots back in May at Pinnacles.  As with the Melissa blues, the female acmon blues have a browner ground color on the underside (ventral).

I'm noting the plant they're perched on while they do their thing, but that may not mean much.  While I do have other photographs of worn female acmons nectaring on seacliff buckwheat, I don't have any photographs of egg-laying on this plant.  It cannot be assumed seacliff buckwheat is the larval host plant of these acmons.  I didn't notice any other buckwheats or lotuses in bloom in the area, which also may not mean much.  In any case, I thought this would be a good time to showcase this lovely local buckwheat...

tight pom-pom shaped multi-colored mature pink blooms

narrow arrow-shaped leaves, cobweb top and felty bottom

seacliff buckwheat from a distance

(it apparently likes "cliffs" with a marine influence)

another pair of mating acmon blues on a drier seacliff buckwheat flower head
(browner female left, male right)

ps 11/21/14 - Jim Reveal confirmed this ID, and if he recognized varieties, he'd call this var. parvifolium.

gray hairstreak ~ 07/17/14 ~ Podere di Farfalla

"Eh?  What's this?  You're going to take my picture?"

"No, please don't.  I'm not ready"

"Hold on a sec.  Let me spruce up a bit."

"OK, I'm ready.  Go ahead and take my picture."
male gray hairstreak perched on seacliff buckwheat
male Strymon melinus pudica perched on Eriogonum parvifolium 
Polygonaceae

What's not obvious in many of my pictures is how breezy it frequently is, which makes it very difficult to take clear shots of tiny butterflies even when they're perched on a plant.  I took the above set with the pocket camera held still while the buckwheat was waving about in the wind.  Seriously.  I've been loving the auto-macro feature on our 10-year-old Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50.  It's incredibly easy, although it's not as quick as I would like and only has 5 megapixels.  It's a shame it took us 9 years before we discovered this cool feature.  However, I'm worried that because of its age, it might crap out any day now.  I've been looking for a replacement and haven't found anything remotely equivalent.  I field tested other point-and-shoot cameras this summer and was less than pleased with the fuzzy not-really-macro results.  I'd welcome any suggestions for a replacement/addition to our Konica.

Mylitta crescent ~ 07/10/14 ~ Podere di Farfalla

male Mylitta crescent nectaring on tocalote

male Phyciodes mylitta mylitta nectaring on Centaurea melitensis

for more information, click here and here

Asteraceae

The first crescent butterfly I became familiar with was in Ohio, the pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos).  It became my mental model of what a crescent should look like on the top, something I liken to a grandmother's lace doily (don't ask me why, it just worked for me).  It was such an immediate ID clue for me that I don't think I ever really bothered to look at the underside (ventral) of the wings.  It wasn't until I recently picked up Art Shapiro's Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions that it finally dawned on me why crescents are named such.  Just look at that white crescent shape, along the margin in the middle of the ventral hindwing!  Cool.  Note: not all crescents have such strongly marked crescents.  Also to note:  female Mylitta often have more strongly marked topside (dorsal) patterns.  Ah, I'm slowly getting the hang of local IDs...

acmon blue ~ 07/10/14 ~ Podere di Farfalla

acmon blue (blue male top, brown female below) nectaring on tocalote

Icaricia acmon (aka Plebejus acmon) nectaring on Centaurea melitensis

Asteraceae

wordless Wednesday