Favoritos de zitserm

This beautiful moth really liked my black binoculars, perhaps because his color pattern had quite a bit of black in it. Also, it appeared that the moth was using his proboscis to palpate the binoculars - perhaps he was lapping up remnants of sweat from my hands holding the binoculars.

Sky blue flowers with four petals, with a white eye. Leaves are sessile, opposite, ovate and coarsely toothed. Leaves are hairy and somewhat coarse to the touch. Growing on the side of a road in deciduous woods, not far from the Hudson River. Poison ivy, Ground ivy and White campion nearby.

Seen with @susanhewitt . This interesting vine, which has leaves that reminded me a bit of Celastrus orbiculatus, was covering an American elm. Twining clockwise.

Susan's observation from the same day:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163042860

A huge example of this creeper was growing right at the entrance to the vacant lot, mostly covering American Elm branches.

I have never seen this species before, but it certainly looks like a Fallopia.

On the outer edge of a park, near Union Turnpike. Probably the salt from the salt trucks in the winter helped this salt tolerant plant to thrive. This makes me think that it's not just "salt tolerant" but also "salt loving".

These American Winter Ants seemed not too happy with the larva. The Short-tailed Aphideater is a wasp-mimicking hover fly whose larva eats aphids. Given that ants will often have a symbiotic relationship with aphids, perhaps that's why these ants were not happy with the Aphideater? I included some photos of a dark colored aphid and what might be a live alate or perhaps just the wings, found on this Norway maple sapling, next to the larva.

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/syrphid-flies