A-girdling we go, a-girdling we go, hey ho the chewy-o, a-girdling we go! |
October 27, 2019. It's always exciting to find and identify a new animal life form in the garden – but some are more welcome than others. A few weeks ago, our huisache tree was brutally and mysteriously attacked by an unknown foe. As you can read in more detail on my huisache girdler page, I found that the culprits were Oncideres pustulata, long-horned beetles in the genus of twig girdlers. Soon after, Ben found two of the beetles in action, and captured one for a photo shoot. Alas, the huisache is now missing two of its larger upright limbs, but at least the damage is done by a native insect, one that has co-evolved with the huisache and is actually kind of cool to learn more about. Still, I wouldn't mind if my next insect find was a colorful butterfly! |
