photos by Mary DeVaughn

15 August 2026

Seen this week were …

Butterflies:

On Friday morning, 14 August, I got a message from Mary DeVaughn: “Just caught some nice camouflage here! A “dead leaf” landed on my windowsill – but then it opened its wings!” It’s a question mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis).

Charity Kheshgi and I noticed the same thing at Frick Park last Sunday when a hackberry emperor (Asterocampa celtis) paused on the cobbled path. My cellphone photos are poor quality but you can see that it’s camouflaged when closed and visible when open.

On 9 August we also found a catalpa sphinx moth caterpillar (Ceratomia catalpae) — a catalpa worm — almost exactly a year since we saw them in Frick in August 2025. Click here to see a better photo of this caterpillar + its host plant + a look at the moth.

Various fruits seen include …

Flowers and round seed capsules of Indian tobacco (Lobelia inflata).

Fruits of a native hawthorn tree (Crataegus species). The seeds inside these fruits are mildly toxic to humans.

Fruits of invasive common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). These are toxic to humans and pets but, like the hawthorn, are readily eaten by birds.