Love Box facility destroyed only a mile west of WPWP; the railroad through the site is important as a future trail and/or future light rail route and currently as a part of the green infrastructure, continuous wildlife habitat where deer cross from hills to prairies to other prairies to other hills.

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of wasp on goldenrod at WPWP on October 28, 2010

Monarchs frequent fliers on October 25, 26, 27 over WPWP

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of monarch butterfly over World Peace Wetland Prairie on October 27, 2010, in top photo.

Please click on image below to see South Duncan Avenue entry to World Peace Wetland Prairie on October 27, 2010.

Please click on image below to view seed pods of swamp milkweed on World Peace Wetland Prairie on October 27, 2010.

Thesis of 'Bringing Nature Home' summarized succintly by Doug Tallamy audio

Bringing Nature Home: brief podcast by Doug Tallamy this link

Late-blooming wildflowers support pollinators on October 23, 2010

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE.

Terri Lane reports to the Environmental Action Committee that the National Wildlife Federation has registered Fayetteville's community wildlife-habitat project

Please click on image to ENLARGE for easy reading.

World Peace Wetland Prairie is a small but important piece of wildlife habitat in Fayetteville, Arkansas, that became a city park in 2005. Learn of five previous years of effort to make that happen at Aubunique.com

Arkansas Insect Fest 2010 linked on Flickr site

Arkansas Insect Fest 2010 set of photos on Flickr

Insect on Verbesina virginica

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE. Top photo is high enough resolution that one can use computer tools to enlarge several more steps.

Biologists scour Mojave in desert tortoise roundup - latimes.com

Biologists scour Mojave in desert tortoise roundup - latimes.com

American basketflower featured on You Tube video based on Aubrey James Shepherd's photos and first telecast on CAT 18 in Fayetteville, Arkansas

aubunique: Insect Festival coming up

aubunique: Insect Festival coming up: "Please use live links on site to navigate and read more detail. Bumpers College Home Entomology Home O..."

aubunique: Tree and Landscape Committee sets annual city tree...

aubunique: Tree and Landscape Committee sets annual city tree...: "12th Annual Celebration of TreesSaturday October 9, 2010 7:00 am Town Center entrance on the Fayetteville SquareEvery year the Tree and Lan..."

Red admiral butterfly on frostweed on October 2, 2010: Like monarch butterflies, this species makes long migrations each year. Use links below to learn more

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Vanessa atalanta, the red admiral butterfly, nectaring on Verbesina virginica, white crownbeard, one of several species of native plants that are called frostweed because of the winged stems that appear wrapped in ice flowers early on clear, cold fall mornings.

Attributes of Vanessa atalanta
available at Butterflies and moths of North America.
Please see video of its caterpillar at ARKIVE.
Family: Brush-footed Butterflies (Nymphalidae)

Subfamily: True Brushfoots (Nymphalinae)

Identification: Upperside is black with white spots near the apex; forewing with red median band, hindwing with red marginal band. The winter form is smaller and duller, summer form larger and brighter with an interrupted forewing band.

Life history: The Red Admiral has a very erratic, rapid flight. Males perch, on ridgetops if available, in the afternoon to wait for females, who lay eggs singly on the tops of host plant leaves. Young caterpillars eat and live within a shelter of folded leaves; older caterpillars make a nest of leaves tied together with silk. Adults hibernate.

Flight: Two broods from March-October in the north, winters from October-March in South Texas.

Wing span: 1 3/4 - 3 inches (4.5 - 7.6 cm).

Caterpillar hosts: Plants of the nettle family (Urticaceae) including stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), tall wild nettle (U. gracilis), wood nettle (Laportea canadensis), false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica), pellitory (Parietoria pennsylvanica), mamaki (Pipturus albidus), and possibly hops (Humulus).

Adult food: Red Admirals prefer sap flows on trees, fermenting fruit, and bird droppings; visiting flowers only when these are not available. Then they will nectar at common milkweed, red clover, aster, and alfalfa, among others.

Habitat: Moist woods, yards, parks, marshes, seeps, moist fields. During migrations, the Red Admiral is found in almost any habitat from tundra to subtropics.

Range: Guatemala north through Mexico and the United States to northern Canada; Hawaii, some Caribbean Islands, New Zealand, Europe, Northern Africa, Asia. Cannot survive coldest winters; most of North America must be recolonized each spring by southern migrants.

Conservation: Not required.

NatureServe Global Status: G5 - Demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.

Management needs: None reported.

Gray hairstreak butterflies and many other beneficial insects use the tiny white flowers of smartweed for nectar and many species' caterpillers eat the vegetation of the smartweed. Please see links below to read more

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE and widen view of October 3, 2010, photos from World Peace Wetland Prairie.
And see what one urban gardener has to say about smartweed.

Smartweed valuable to many butterflies and birds. To read more, please see the following smartweed link.

US Government site on Smartweed.

Pearl crescent butterfly, tiny Centaurea and fly on native bush honeysuckle on October 1, 2010

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE photos from Oct. 1, 2010.

Hairstreak butterfly on yellow flowers (is it bitterweed or sneezeweed? you google it and decide) on Pinnacle Prairie west of World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE and widen view of hairstreak on yellow flower on October 1, 2010.