This dead pear tree has quite a history.
Now it houses a spider whose web is about 3 feet high in the tree.
The silk is so fine the web would be hard to spot if it wasn’t for the “stuff” in it. The “stuff” looks like sawdust. Woodpeckers do visit the tree and “sawdust” would fall when there was activity above … or the spider added it when spinning the web.
These three pictures of the web weren’t taken on the same day.
It was an active place when the tree was alive and producing fruit. I have no idea what’s included in the “stuff” in the line … unless it’s somehow young spiders. (They are spider egg cases.)
The pears would rot and drop when the tree was alive. The rotten fruit then attracted many, many butterflies and other insects too.
Red-spotted purple butterflies visited flowers.
The viceroy resembles a monarch, only the monarch lacks the extra black band on the hindwing.
Besides the rotten fruit, the hackberry butterflies will also visit animal droppings and carrion.
A question mark butterfly joined the hackberries. If you look close, you’ll see a faint gold upside-down question mark in the middle of its hindwing.
The buckeye butterflies have an eye spot on the top of the forewing and two spots of different sizes on their hindwing.
I plan to enjoy the pear tree until it’s all fallen down.