Critter

Found in my carport today. Scooped up into paper cup to take photo for ID. It ended up taking a long water ride down the slide that starts in the bathroom! All gone! Hope there aren't many more or their larvae lurking nearby.  

Longhorn Beetles

“Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than the beetle's body. In various members of the family, however, the antennae are quite short.”

“All known longhorn beetle larvae feed on plant tissue such as stems, trunks, or roots of both herbaceous and woody plants, often in injured or weak trees. A few species are serious pests.  The larvae, called roundheaded borers, bore into wood, where they can cause extensive damage to either living trees or untreated lumber (or, occasionally, to wood in buildings; the old-house borer, Hylotrupes bajulus, is a particular problem indoors).”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhorn_beetle

Camera Critters #3

Hundreds and hundreds of these were eating the leaves, no, I should say gobbling the leaves, on a passion flower vine. I took this photo in a campground and I noticed them when I went back a second time after taking a photograph of the flower a few days earlier.  

I kept it in a jar, feeding it more leaves I plucked from the vine almost daily for over a week. Finally, I had to release it because we were leaving to return home. 

I have now learned that it is a larvae of the fritillary butterfly.  The passion flower vine is one of several possible host plants for the fritillary butterflies. 

Here is a picture (not taken by me) of this beautiful butterfly.

Here is a photograph I took, not knowing what kind of butterfly it was. There were thousands flying over the ocean beaches!  Eureka!

http://bluffareadaily.blogspot.com/

Camera Critters #2

I trapped this critter in a little jar under the flap covering the skirting at our campground trailer in South Carolina in October. The lid was tightly shut for over three weeks, and when I set the jar on the dinette table in the sunlight to take a picture of it, it started moving around very vigorously and I was surprised it was still alive. After another couple of weeks of entrapment it died. I'm sure all of you know what it is and how dangerous they are. We have found several others before and are careful, as are the propane gas vendors and repairmen.

Click on photo for enlargement

http://bluffareadaily.blogspot.com/