80AcresOnline

I mentioned back a few posts that May 23, the day of the weird beetle in the bathroom, had also produced a weird moth in the kitchen…and I forgot, until I was at BugGuide looking at some of my images to see if something “new” was really “old”, that May 23, also produced the pretty spot-winged fly on the skeleton plant flower.

Now that I have an ID for the moth, a Yellow-fringed Dolichomia, Dolichomia olinalis I think, though mine was larger than the typical size listed.

The contrast of the distinctly rosy-brown, glossy wings with their subtle patterns and the dull-yellow fringe is beautiful.    The larvae feed on oak trees, and since we have oak trees of several species, I’m fairly confident this moth is reproducing here.

So May 23 was a special 3-new-species day.    The other two species first noticed that day are in other posts–the spotted-winged fly on May 23 and the beetle on June 9.

The weather continues hot and dry; the fields are browning off again.   I haven’t had much time to explore–there was an interesting beetle on the back kitchen door this morning, but the AC repairman and the farrier were both due, so I had plenty to do before I could look for it–and it wasn’t there, of course.  (Both horses were trimmed before lunch,  I gave up and cut out an impossible tangle in the palomino’s long and very thick tail, and am about to continue with the end-of-week laundry: first load was on the line before the repairman showed up.   And we have a huge bowl of tomatoes…we’re in the mid-end-of-June tomato glut (things die here in July and August, esp. in drought years like this.)