Monday, July 25, 2005

Moth Action Coming On Strong!

This has been a great season for moths for us so far.



A month ago Martha saw her first ever Luna moth---a big, pale green beauty. She found it in an unbeautiful place: on the window of a minimall. But it hung around all day as she brought various friends over to see it. Too bad she didn't get a photo of it.

Then we saw a few strange caterpillars like the one pictured below. I'm pretty sure it's a Tussock moth caterpillar. It had a VERY orange head, 3 tusks, and 4 tussocks. Cool!

Then we saw a weird moth on our porch which we're told was a kind of Tiger Moth. It was about 2" long---a lovely mix of black'n'white spots and fluorescent blue and yellow.

Then in front of our house, in the road, two Polyphemous moths were in a strange embrace when Martha went out for a bike ride. They went flapping like kleenexes right into some passing cars but weren't hit. Martha scooped them into an old pizza box and brought them to our backyard where they eventually recovered and flapped away. I took pics of the smaller one which had a 5" wingspan.



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