Last month, Jon and I took a detour on a dirt
road several miles SE of Baker, California. It lead to a dry wash filled with desert catalpa (Chilopsis linearis) in full bloom.
We found sphecid wasps (one just visible in the upper right corner in the picture above), a few species of bees and several butterflies all competing with each other in a feeding frenzy. The sleepy
oranges (Eurema nicippe) disregarded
any sense of caution and plunged much of their bodies inside to get at the
nectar (making it easy to snap pictures).
The lovely great purple hairstreak (Atlides halesus) with metallic blue and
red scales was a bit more wary.
