Oh no! Erionota thrax!!

 The egg of the voracious culprit

     The tell-tale sign of the Banana Skipper (Erionata thrax, Family: Hesperiidae) appeared on my biggest banana plant last week. One leaf became a home for the caterpillars, who chewed up the edges of the leaf and curled themselves up inside their newly made home. I immediately began to squish the little guys. Then I realized I should have taken some pictures. Luckily, I found some unhatched eggs (above photo). The caterpillars are tiny and slender. A green body and dark-colored head. Plan to search for the adult form soon. I brought the banana back into the garage, but just today found newly hatched caterpillars curled up in the lower regions of one of the leafs. I should have thought to inspect the stems, not just the leaves, because that's where I found the eggs.

 Damage to my banana plant

Impromptu trip to Andy South area on Friday. Was hoping for nice, big puddles I'd scoped out in early Fall.  Unfortunately the dry season seems to have arrived, so only found smaller puddles and one big muddy area. Lots of Orthetrum sabina sabina and baby toads. Managed to catch a sabina. Was a bit less vibrantly colored than the one I caught the week before. Also caught a Monarch butterfly. Butterflies are so easy to catch instead of dragonflies. The only other dragonfly present around the road puddles was a orange-colored, almost iridescent, fast-flying dragonfly. It was a sight to see two of them were in tandem. However, was unsuccessful in catching them. To try to capture them makes one feel as if one is in slow-motion. You will see it easily dodge the swoop of a net one or two moments before you even register its change in position. Cannot even be sure what species it is. I'm going to guess it is Tholymis tillarga, but I really can't be sure without catching it. I am determined to catch one now.

 Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

Another green marsh hawk (Orthetrum sabina sabina)

Orthetrum sabina sabina: First Dragonfly Catch

Net gain of 1

I'm pretty sure I'm holding it correctly. It did fly away when I let it go.

Close-up of caudal appendage

Finally finished my dragonfly net. There happened to be two species of dragonfly flying around the house in the late morning. Successful in catching this little guy, or girl: Orthetrum sabina s. or its common names, slender skimmer or green march hawk. It's a beautiful specimen with black and green alternating stripes on its thorax and humongous, green compound eyes. It's also rather feisty. I let it crawl on my hand and it bit me! Its fangs are pretty powerful and the bite drew a tiny bit of blood. When it breaths, its abdomen inflates and deflates a bit. According to another blogger of dragonflies, you can only tell what sex the bugger is if you compare the caudal appendage. The female appendage is more splayed, but I cannot really tell now looking at these photos. Sabinas are found all over the world, from Africa to Australia. Most dragonflies of worldwide distribution have also found their way to Guam. Diplacodes bipunctatus is also found all over the world.

Thanks to my sister for taking these awesome photos and my dad for using his expert bug catching skills to catch the dragonfly.

More Diplacodes bipunctatus...And I Need a Better Camera

 Another fuzzy photo: Diplacodes bipunctatus, male, by a rain puddle

 Rain catchment originally devised by my ingenious Grandpa

Weeds galore! and a young banana plant

A few photos of today's adventure in the garden. Weeding is the main task right now. I thought it would be rather boring, but there's a certain satisfaction that comes out of doing something practical with your hands, even if it is just pulling out ugly grass and vine. My dad helped dig out the impossibly heavy bricks surrounding the dead palm trees. We got sidetracked trying to identify the shells of land snails scattered about the soil. The shells are numerous, but they are all introduced species. A tragic war of attrition is occurring right now. Many of Guam's endemic land snails are very endangered or already extinct, being pushed out be introduced species and land development. I bet most of the fauna and flora in the yard is introduced, not including my additions like the genovese basil.

Sat by a rain puddle to try to catch a pic of Diplacodes bipunctatus, which is pretty common in the yard. My zoom function sucks though, and the details of it's body are hard to see.

Diplacodes bipunctatus and gryllotalpidae

First Entry!

16 Dec 11

Diplacodes bipunctatus in oviposition! Male grasping the females eyes, dipping her end into the rain puddle. Couldn't see the eggs. Flew all around me. Not bothered by me at all it seems. At least three other dragonflies flew by as I observed the ovipositors. Two were in tandem, of a different, bigger species.

Found a mole cricket (family: Gryllotalpidae) in the banana planter two days ago. Weirdest looking creature I've ever seen. Pretty fast too. Bit of trouble to catch. I must have looked pretty silly trying to catch the cricket with huge barbecue tongs. Finally realized I could just scoop it into the jar. Really does look like a cross between a mole and a cricket. Huge muscular forearms used to dig through soil. Died yesterday. Looks like it had a broken leg. I want to keep it and preserve it. (Update: it started to mold :( )

 A fuzzy photo of Gryllotalpidae

Continuing to clear weeds in garden bed. Dad cleared more of the corner of the garden. Mortgage lifter tomato not doing so well, no flowers anymore. I think my laid back gardening style isn't very kind to tomato plants. Cantaloupe seeds have sprouted. I started weeding them too, but then realized my mistake! oh well, they are numerous. Also accidentally pulled out another edible plant, dago I think?

Pruned the basil leaves. Stalks are now super thick. So many basil leaves pruned. We started to make pesto, but then dad and ani disappeared. Found them on couch watching Man on a Wire. Finished the pesto myself. Heavy on the pine nuts, but super delicious nonetheless.

Fleet Foxes, my band of the month. Perfect listening for post-gardening relaxation.