Insects in my backyard

There are several insect species that I encounter regularly in my backyard. Amongst these are such butterflies as fiery skippers, gulf fritillaries, painted and West Coast ladies, and cabbage whites; Western honey bees; Asian, seven-spotted, and convergent lady beetles; various species of hoverfly; and scentless plant bugs.

Fiery skippers (Hylephila phyleus) frequent the lantana and are so far the only skipper butterfly that shows up consistently(I have seen Eufala(Lerodea eufala) and umber(Lon melane) skippers, though nowhere near as often). In San Bernardino at least, the males are generally bright orange-yellow and the females a pale tan. They are very friendly, and have a few times crawled onto my hand upon my extending it toward them. This year they first appeared in late May, reached their prominence between July and September, and vanished by October.

I see gulf fritillaries(Dione vanillae), which also enjoy the lantana, almost year-round. I would crudely estimate their wingspan to be 7 centimetres. They are in both sexes bright orange, with white black-bordered dots on the middle margins of the tops of either forewing. They are prone to flying away should you approach them too suddenly.

I do not see painted(Vanessa cardui) or West Coast(Vanessa annabella) ladies as frequently as I do the aforementioned butterflies, but during the winter and spring months they appear frequently enough for me to notice. They have a wingspan of approximately 5-6 centimetres, though I have not measured them, and are distinguishable from each other in the coloration close to the outer corner of the forewing — V. cardui has, about one-third of the way horizontally from the very corner of the wing, a white area, while V. annabella has in that location an orange area.

And how could I forget the cabbage white(Pieris rapae)? native to Europe, they are invasive in the United States. They are moderately sized and I would gauge their wingspan to be about four centimetres.

Western honey bees(Apis mellifera) and Asian lady beetles(Harmonia axyridis) are both invasive in the United States. Western honey bees(which are native to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East) and were, starting in the seventeenth century, introduced by humans into other continents. Asian lady beetles are similar in this respect, though their introduction occurred in the late twentieth century. I see both of them year-round. The honey bees are attracted to the lantana(as well as to the Oxalis pes-caprae that pops up in January and stays till March) and have a propensity for flying into the backyard swimming pool and becoming stuck till I can save them.

The convergent lady beetles(Hippodamia convergens) are quite small — I would estimate their length to be only 4 millimetres on average. I have recently been seeing a preponderance of both them and of seven-spotted lady beetles(Coccinella septempunctata). Most convergent lady beetles I have seen have six spots on each wing, though I have seen a few with only two on each.

The two species of hoverflies I can confirm have appeared in my backyard are Allograpta obliqua and Scaeva affinis. They are generally rather small(rarely more than 6 millimetres in length), though in March I saw one that was about a centimetre long or perhaps a bit larger. One can easily differentiate between males and females by observing their eyes; males have the eyes connected at the top of their heads while females do not.

Scentless plant bugs(family Rhopalidae) measure about 3-5 millimetres. The only species that I have recorded thus far is Liorhyssus hyalinus, known according to its Bugguide page as the hyaline grass bug. The only situations in which I normally see them are when I have to save them from the pool.