From Nymph to a Brand New Dragonfly!

Dragonfly nymphs emerging from the water (left, under the lily pad leaf), having shed their nymph exoskeleton and airing out their new wings. Oh what a glorious thing it must be to fly for the very first time, having spent their entire lives thus far underwater! On the right, a skipper butterfly rests in a lily flower.

Close-up on the juvenile dragonflies as they wait for their wings to dry and their exoskeleton to harden.

Fiery Skipper?

Skipper butterfy, possibly a Fiery Skipper, Hylephila phyleus and unknown wasp coming in for a landing on Foxglove, Balboa Park. Fiery skipper was my best guess on this little skipper butterfly; however, this one has a brown body (female perhaps?). Butterflies can be a bit of work to identify but I'm not even going attempt to ID that wasp. Ahem, ID left as an exercise to our readers!

Foxglove (Digitalis) is poisonous but very beautiful and showy with long spikes of tubular flowers. It is also clearly not poisonous for pollinators!