The Good, the Bad, and the Bugly

This last summer I had a few non-pest visitors in addition to the white flies, fungus gnats, and spider mites. Living in an urban city, close to the ocean, one doesn't see too much in the way of wildlife unless one counts the sea gulls and pigeons (I don't). The hummingbirds did start to come around, and I hope for many more tiny terrors this coming Spring, but the majority of the other visitors were even smaller.

I found a praying mantis skulking about. I was happy to see him, but I was pretty sure it'd move on as most of the lady bugs, and green lace wings had after I released those in the yard in an attempt at biological control. Nonetheless, I really like praying mantises. They have a way of capturing the imagination. If only this one had stayed longer and captured a few most pests.

 

There were a few small white cabbage butterflies (dixeia) flitting about. They're pretty common coast to coast. There were a few butterflies that I wasn't able to easily identify. My guess is that they're a dixiea species as well, but I'd love to have them positively identified by an entomologist or enthusiast.  At first I thought they could be heliconius butterflies which had found my passiflora, but the shape is all off and the habitat is too high in latitude. Whatever species they are, they're fun to watch while they lay their eggs. They pop over the fence, bop around from leaf to leaf, dipping their abdomen down to deposit one little egg at a time. I suppose it's an evolutionary case of "not putting all of one's eggs in one basket". I'm guessing that the pesticides that I had to spray, plus the hard pruning probably removed any chance of having caterpillars come Spring. (Update: They're almost certainly a Gulf Fritillary! (Agraulis vanillae))

The last invertebrate was a fancy European garden spider (araneus diadematus) that showed up one day and was gone as quickly by the evening. I wasn't familiar with this arachnid at first, but as long as it wasn't a black widow or a brown recluse, I was content to let it hang out. If you're one to be intimidated by spiders, then it can look pretty menacing, but I'm fairly certain that I've identified it correctly and that it's harmless to humans and pets. I included both sides in the pictures because the eyes are quite large, but you can see the spinnerets on the ventral side.

In case you're wondering, I didn't get the order wrong per this post's title. The good (mantis) eats the pest insects. The bad (butterfly), lays eggs on my passiflora, which turn into caterpillars, which eat up my plants. The ugly (spider)...well, ugly is in the eye of the beholder.