If today we ended Daylight Savings Time, have we now entered the time of losing, or possibly wasting, daylight?
Today seems like a perfect day to revisit images from the past summer. These are all dead insects (and one spider and one isopod) found about the estate as summer passed. The top photos are a robber fly, Mallophora fautrix, I found resting on a eriogonum giganteum branch. I gathered it up and set it in a planter with the brain cactus for safekeeping.
As time went by, a yellow faced bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii) joined the robber fly. I rarely see bumblebees flying in the yard so this was an unusual find.
This cabbage white butterfly was found on the gravel and joined the brain cactus collection. There were a lot of cabbage whites this summer.
Out on the front porch I found a sad scene with dismembered house spider (achaearanea tepidariorium) and sowbug. A deadly fight between a spider and a sowbug seems unlikely but what other explanation is there for this scenario?
A neighbor found a dead black witch moth (Escalapha odorata) while rummaging through her stuff in the garage. She brought it over to share. This one appears to have been dead awhile and the colors are faded. Females have a light band zigzagging across the wings, not clearly apparent in this specimen. Though I was sad it was dead, this discovery gave me hope of someday seeing a black witch flying around my garden some night.
4 comments:
Year ago I was alerted to the presence of a moth (HUGE black thing) by a co-worker in San Diego, so I ran out and took pictures. Then contacted a biologist friend (expert on lepidopterans) who told me it was a black witch moth, and he was forever pissed that I'd not kept it (I'm a softie so let it fly free), 'cause it would have been a very uncommon (possibly original) record of that species in that region. Fabulous animal!
Your collection of expired bugs on cactus is very interesting, uncommon, and sober-yet-beautiful, IMHO.
On several occasions I've found spiders in our house w/ fewer than 8 legs and it's usually because of our cats, poor spideys. I then rescue and relocate them.
Who know pill bugs were so capable of self defense??
cool dead things. ha!
no really...i take pictures too, of all the bugs i see...alive or past tense! and they're so much easier to get close up pictures when they're not moving anymore! :(
Some great day (or more likely evening) I'll see a live black witch in flight. For now, dead things are interesting too.
Très belles photos !!!
Just beautiful photos, lovely...
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