May 29th, 2007
in the vegetable garden
Yesterday’s field trip with the high schools students went very well. I’ll post something about it tomorrow after all of the photos are up online. As it turned out, we spent most of our time walking along discussing interesting things found along the trail. As a consequence, we ended up not having time to do any ID work, so we had no real need of field guides. Fortunately, I left most of them in my car. The weather was highly cooperative, providing sun and a fairly steady breeze that kept the mosquitoes off of us for most of the day (I’d been a little concerned about that). I think most of the students enjoyed the hike. Anyhow, more about this tomorrow.
Returning home in the afternoon, I spent a few minutes working around the new raised vegetable garden beds that we’ve recently built. We have an older vegetable garden, but much of it is becoming too shady for certain vegetables, so we’ve built a small patio near the Spider Ranch part of the yard. There are just a few patio stones surrounded by the raised beds. I’m assembling a small hearth inside the garden for evenings when we feel like fire-roasting some marinated vegetables for our dinner.
As I worked, I found one of my favourite insects — a Tortoise Beetle (see above). I believe this is the Common Garden Tortoise Beetle (Plagiometriona clavata). I found it on an eggplant leaf which had been nibbled in a couple of spots. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought the insect was just a windblown seed. However, I’ve seen these beetles before and recognize them on sight. When disturbed, they pull their legs and antennae under their elytra. I think they’re pretty neat little creatures.
Another insect which I’m seeing quite frequently are Six-spotted Tiger Beetles. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned seeing and trying to photograph them. That’s not a problem anymore. Since assembling the patio stones in the new garden, the Tiger Beetles spend a good deal of time basking, or pursuing any insects that make the unfortunate decision to come within their territory. As you can see, Tiger Beetles have rather wicked looking mandibles (click on image for larger view). However, they seem to ignore humans and I’ve never heard of anyone being bitten by one.
Of course, Sabrina wanted to lie around in the garden while I worked. She seems to be doing very well. We’re still limiting our walks to short forays around the farm, but we’ll probably be back to hiking longer trails by mid-June. Yesterday, I happened to see something just before I snapped that shot and said, “What in Sam Hill?” Sabrina must have picked up on that as she gave me a very classic curious-Collie look.
Well, it is sunny and I have quite a bit of transplanting to do out in the garden, so back to work!
Tags: Cassidinae, Plagiometriona clavata, Common Garden Tortoise Beetle, Cicindela sexguttata, Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, Sabrina