Saw all kinds of #lepidoptera yesterday @thebotanicgardenatosu #butterfly
Tag: insects
Found some old pics of a damselfly that I didn’t realize were so high res.
if you described cicadas to someone who’d never heard of them, it would be indistinguishable from a shitpost
a type of insect that spends many years underground (usually a prime number), before emerging en masse to spend a week clinging to trees and screaming before they all die
im not entirely convinced this isnt a shitpost
clinging to trees and screaming AND FUCKING before dying
don’t forget the fucking
7/16/15 Absolutely Gorgeous !!!!!!!
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
No Taxon (Moths)
Superfamily Bombycoidea
Family Sphingidae (Sphinx Moths)
Subfamily Macroglossinae
Tribe Macroglossini
Genus Eumorpha
Species pandorus (Pandorus Sphinx – Hodges#7859)Hodges Number 7859
Other Common Names Pandora Sphinx
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes First described in 1806 by Jacob Hübner as Daphnis pandorus
Eumorpha pandorus
Explanation of Names Greek pandoros (πανδωρος) can mean either “giving all” or “given all”. The name Pandora (πανδωρα) is the feminine form of this word.
Size Wingspan 87-115 mm
Identification Adult:
forewing olive green with darker green apical patch and border along
inner margin, broken near anal angle; pink streaks near middle of wing
and at inner margin; double black discal spot; hindwing whitish basally,
green distally, with two large black patches, and some pink at anal
angle
[adapted from description by Charles Covell]Larva: body bright green or reddish-brown
with swollen third thoracic segment into which head and first 2
thoracic segments can be drawn; abdomen with small white to yellow spot
on segment 2 and large oval spots around spiracle on third to seventh
segments; whiplike horn of early instars replaced with button in last
stage; thorax and anterior abdominal segments with dorsal black spotting
[adapted from description by David Wagner and Valerie Giles]
Range Eastern United States (Maine to Florida, west to Texas, north to Nebraska and Wisconsin) plus Ontario and Nova Scotia
Season adults fly from May to October
larvae present from June to November
Food Larvae feed on leaves of peppervine (Ampelopsis spp.), grape (Vitis spp.), and Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).
Life Cycle one generation per year in the north; two generations in the south
Remarks An extra-spectacular sphinx moth.
Drepana arcuata “Arched Hooktip Moth” Drepanidae
Clinton, MT
July 25, 2015
Robert NieseHere’s another moth we spotted during our Mothlighting event for
National Moth Week with the Missoula Butterfly House. These moths are positively unmistakable! In our area there are no other moths that pull-off the “I’m a dead leaf” look quite as well as the Hooktips. The PNW is home to two species of Hooktip moths – D. arcuata and D. bilineata (which, as its name suggests, has two lines instead of one). As larva, Hooktip moths feed on the leaves of Alder and Birch trees where they hide inside folded leaves.
Cute but not native Japanese Maple Leafhopper, Japananus hyalinus. Came in on Japanese maple imports at the end of the 19th century.
(Japananus? Seriously, taxonomists, SERIOUSLY???)
The butterfly watcher’s dilemma- when you get a photo of every possible butterfly EXCEPT a monarch! I still have some summer left to snag one though, wish me luck. These consolation prizes ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at.
When I was a small child I was obsessed with drawing butterflies. Little did I know I’d be obsessed with catching them on camera two decades later. I guess there’s just something special about them.
280 days of Urbpandemonium #133
Another day another huge scary and of course harmless insect. The patterned wings and large size of the tiger bee fly Xenox tigrinus* suggest perhaps a horse fly. This one has been displaying some aggressive behavior as well–it’s lucky it chose the porch of two bug-lovers to defend. Despite everything, these are beneficial insects that lay their eggs in the nests of carpenter bees, which provides their maggots with bee grubs to eat.
* “Alien tiger”