Another first sighting for me. This time it’s a native Dalea which goes by a couple of names: Marina dalea (was Dalea parryi). A bonus was finding a tiny hopper staring at me.
After seeing the insect on the Dalea, I started looking for others and found a little Crab spider on a New Mexico Thistle next.
One of my last photos of the afternoon was the prize of the day! The plant is Odora (Porophyllum gracile) and I think the butterfly is an Azure Celestrina.
Tech FYI: Canon 24-105, 500D close-up filter (which meant I was close! I’ll take my 180 macro next time)
Marina parryi is another one of those cases where a taxonomist decided to move a plant from one genus to another – it used to be Dalea parryi, now it’s Marina parryi.
I kept watch on some desert marigolds off our back porch last month and found a number of bright yellow crab spiders – even caught them with prey a few times. Check them in the early evening. Once the prickly pear flowers open it’ll be time to search them for lynx spiders.
Thanks, Steve! I’ve edited this post accordingly. And thanks for the tip regarding when to look for critters. I hope to capture some…with my camera of course 🙂