The Butterflies and the Bees

Honeybees- there are plenty of these girls in my urban prairie

I've been struck by the depauperate native bee community in my vacant lot prairie, especially when compared with the countless butterflies I encounter on my walks.  At first I thought I simply got up too early for them. Native bees tend to fly mid-day, and I do most of my walking around dawn. However, after scoping out the lot at various points in the day, my species list of native bees did not greatly improve. I became concerned-- what do the bees know? Did someone salt the earth of this vacant lot? Is it a superfund site?

...Probably not. While it seems strange that there would be such a mismatch in bee and butterfly richness, in reality bees and butterflies have very different needs. It's true that both are invertebrate pollinators that feed on nectar. However, butterflies don't build nests, and bees don't have free-ranging larval stages dependant upon a few host plants.  I can't help but wonder if butterflies, being less limited by parental responsibilities in their travel (heck- think of the monarch migration!), range further and exploit more isolated stands.

That said, I have seen a ton of honeybees foraging in the dense blooms of the vacant-lot prairie.  There must be a hive nearby. Beekeeping is illegal inside Fort Worth city limits, so we either have a renegade beekeeper or a feral hive.  I'm hoping there's an outlaw apiarist in the community. I like the sound of it, and any feral honeybees around here are likely to be africanized.

The two species of native bee I've seen are one male Svastra spp. and one carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginiana). I wish I had pictures of the diverse butterflies to include in this post, but they are simply too quick for my camera (especially when they are fleeing my snap-happy puppy dog's pointy teeth). I did, however, manage to collect a specimen of the Svastra.

Svastra petulca (?) male, collected on Gaillardia pulchella

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Clasping-leaf coneflower, Dracopis amplexicaulis

I have documented 25 species of blooming native wildflower in the vacant lot so far, plus 2 more in the surrounding neighborhood. See more pictures of this week's 3 additions to the vacant-lot wildflower list after the jump. 

Horse mint- Monarda citriodora

Tentative ID: Lance-leaf loosestrife, Lysimachia lanceolata 

Common Name	Latin Name	Date Observed
antelope horn	Asclepias asperula	17-May
green antelope horn	asclepias viridis
evening rain lily	Cooperia drummondii	17-May
hill country rain lily*	Cooperia pedunculata	17-May
engelmann daisy	Engelmannia peristenia	17-May
indian blanket	Gaillardia pulchella	17-May
scarlet gaura	Gaura coccinea	17-May
prairie verbena	Glandularia bipinnatifida	17-May
texas blue weed	Helianthus ciliaris	22-May
ratany	Krameria lanceolata	17-May
lantana	Lantana urticoides	17-May
texas bluebonnet	Lupinus texensis	17-May
sensitive briar	Mimosa nuttallii	17-May
yellow-puff	Neptunia lutea	17-May
pink ladies	Oenothera speciosa	17-May
texas frog fruit	Phyla nodiflora	17-May
prairie parsley	Polytaenia nuttallii	17-May
prairie coneflower	Ratibida columnifera	17-May
two-leaf senna	Senna roemeriana	17-May
carolina horse nettle	Solanum carolinense	17-May
diamond flowers	Stenaria nigricans var. nigricans	17-May
green thread	Thelesperma filifolium	17-May
western spiderwort*	Tradescantia occidentalis	17-May
texas vervian	Verbena halei	17-May
horse mint	Monarda citriodora	28-May
clasping leaf coneflower	Dracopis amplexicaulis	28-May
lance-leaf loosestrife	Lysimachia lanceolata	28-May