Eaten but not Beaten!

By the latter days of summer, not only are the plants prolific, so are the "pests."  Back in July, the hops were being eaten, as usual, but not by the usual Red Admiral caterpillars.  The critter above looks like a White Marked Tussock Moth caterpillar.  Now, as you compare the photos below, you can see there has been a real feast of late.  The photo on the left was July 19, on the right is September 3.

 

But I think the recent denuding of the vines is from another insect.  Check out the green caterpillar in the shot on the right.  Might be the Hop Looper.  

(In my brain I keep wanting to say Loop Hopper, or Hoop Lopper.)  Oh well, I think the Hop vine will survive.  In other news... a few of my little ones in pots are getting nibbled, here in Digby.  I'm guessing this was the work of some leaf-cutter bees.  

Wisteria macrostachya - Kentucky Wisteria

Amorpha fruticosa - Indigobush

What truly prompted this post today was the saga of the aroid seedlings.  I'll try to keep this short and to the point.  Yeah, much like these seedlings.

Above, you can see some happy little seedlings.  Trouble is, I don't know exactly what they are. Two packs of seeds I managed to forget to plant, this spring, so they went into the earth in pots just a month ago.  Another complication was that I lost track of which was which.  I planted two species of the Aroid family: Pinellia pedatisecta & Arisaema flavum.  They are both similar to the familiar Jack-in-the-Pulpit, A. triphyllum.  They are even more similar when they are but seeds, and when they arise from the earth with one tiny leaf. 
     As I got the seeds planted about a month ago - and lost track of which was Pinellia and which was Arisaema - I sat the two pots in a shady spot outside.  
     Recently, one pot of sprouting seeds started to arise with their tiny green shoots.  I was very happy. 
   So were the earwigs, I'm guessing... 

Every new leaf, but one, was munched off.  Gone.  Nothing but the bare baby petiole reaching up.  And these are tiny. Oh dear.  This is not going to go well, I thought.  That's the end of those seedlings.
    With the other pot - not yet sprouting, I moved this bunch to higher ground (a table in the yard by the garage).  The second pot has sprouted, as you can see in the second photo up.  But that first pot of seedlings is not beaten!  Look... the lonely petioles are starting to sprout a second leaf from below.  

Ain't it great when "the will to live" in a plant, and it's capabilities, outdo your expectations?  Maybe in no time these unnamed, decapitated little aroids will look like this:

Arisaema draconitum