Murgantia histrionica

Murgantia histrionica

I had seen adult harlequin bugs* before, but never the nymph stage. Both life stages are a major pest of cabbage and related brassica crops, feeding on the stems and leaves with their piercing-sucking mouthparts. That didn’t seem to be happening on the bladderpods today, as far as I could see. But who knows that those sneaky little mouth-straws are doing!

*This is different from the insect known in Australia as a harlequin bug, Dindymus versicolor.

bewick’s wren

Well, spring has sprung and the birds are letting us know about it! Yesterday at Wildwood, the Bewick’s wrens were going off! I’m grateful for tools like BirdNET for helping me improve by bird ID skills, especially as we have so many LBJs (little brown jobs) around here. (Ref 📷: Ashok Khosla)