The mistflower plants were well attended today. There were dozens of American snout butterflies; I had seen very few in previous days. I suppose that they must have finally gotten the memo. They can be difficult to spot. Just a bit larger in profile than a fat thumbprint, their coloration is subtle – brownish with an orange triangle and some white blocks above it visible on the underside of the wing. When they light on a flower and rest, they fold their wings vertically so that their underwings show. They look like this.
Hackberry trees are the host plants for the Snouts’ caterpillars, and we have a lot of them on and around our lot. In fact, every summer and late fall, I launch a focused deforestation assault on hackberry saplings which seem to sprout by the hundreds in my flowerbeds. So far, they are winning.
There were lots of other butterflies fluttering frenetically around the mistflower. The scene was a riot of aerial activity.