I grew up thinking there was one kind of katydid: the big green jobs that sang their name at night. But apparently, there are oodles. We found this one, a Meadow Katydid (Conocephalis nemoralis?), lounging under the passionvine in the driveway. It didn’t seem to mind being borrowed for observation. It groomed itself nonstop in the cage, flicked its crazy-long antennae like an fly-fisher casting for trout, and sort of murmured. Continue reading “Meadow Katydid (in the driveway)”
“It’ll take over,” our neighbor warned, followed by: “I cannot believe you planted Perilla.” But, I didn’t plant Perilla. Perilla just happens. This was years ago, and the first time I’d heard the name. Until then, I only knew it as the maroon thing that fluffed in every flower bed (and pot and driveway crack) if allowed, and that the leaves looked like basil but smelled like licorice.
Continue reading “Driveway-Crack Flowers: Perilla”
Found this lone lacewing egg on a passionvine leaf I picked for our Gulf Fritillary caterpillars. The eggs are exquisite: teeny TicTacs on hair-like stalks, usually laid in a row with spaces between (to prevent cannibalism amongst siblings). Continue reading “Lacewing egg”
It looked like a tiny pebble, there on a leaf of my loofa gourd seedling. But it had the conical eyes of a gecko, and a smidge of white fluff coming out its rear. How could I not stop everything to figure out what it was? Continue reading “Planthopper nymph”
[Dartmoor, Devon, England]
I didn’t mean to fall in love with snails. But a quick glance at my camera roll shows a disproportionate ratio of snail pics to family pics, or even to wildflower photos. Snails have not been on my radar till this Dartmoor visit. Then again, on a previous trip here, I fell in love with cow pies. Continue reading “Banded Snails”
For a couple of weeks, I’ll be looking around not nearby in Nashville, but in England: Dartmoor National Park, mostly, plus a few other places on our way to and from. We are lucky to be here. Continue reading “Look Around (England)”
Presenting: a fresh American toadlet.
Yesterday it still had a tail.
A few days ago it breathed through gills and was a vegetarian.
Today it has lungs and a carnivorous gut.
What a cutie. Continue reading “Toadlet”
Hippocampus Magazine has published my short essay, “Naked Ladies and Cicadas” in the May issue, and I am thrilled.
Do visit. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Links to my other essays in literary journals and magazines are at JoannaBrichetto.com.
I knew they weren’t box-elder bugs, but what? Hundreds and hundreds were mating and scurrying about on a (stupid) bush honeysuckle covered with (stupid) English ivy. So I type “red shoulder bug,” into BugGuide and guess what they are?
“Red-shouldered Bugs.” Continue reading “Red-shouldered bugs and a fresh assassin”
My “What a Butterfly Means” was published last week. I wrote it after watching a newly eclosed gulf fritillary butterfly on a passionvine at Warner Park Nature Center’s organic garden. Continue reading “What a butterfly looks like”
