Something small

 

Something small

On my screen this morning, I noticed a tiny moth, about 1 cm from wing tip to wing tip.

It posed quietly for quite a while but was later seen in the kitchen being stalked by Jellicoe. He batted it, and a dark trail was left on the freezer door. I think it must have been made by scales from its wings because I saw it fluttering, so it was obviously still alive.

Sadly, that did not remain the case.  Jellicoe expertly caught it between his front paws and that was its demise.  Herschel just watched. It was too small for his attention – squirrels are more his style.

Punctuation butterflies

 

Punctuation butterflies . . . and others

In one of my A to Z challenge posts, I featured a photograph of a Comma butterfly. Lynn, from Precious, commented that there were Eastern Commas where she lives, in Ohio. She mentioned that there were also Question Mark butterflies in her area.

This intrigued me and led me to wonder if there were any other grammatical insects. There follows a list of the ones I’ve found so far. I’m sure it’s not an exhaustive record and would love to know if anyone knows of any others.

All photographs are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album)

Found in Europe, widespread in England and Ireland

Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma, also known as the hop merchant or the comma anglewing)

Can be seen in North America

Question mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis)

Found in Eastern USA, Canada and Mexico

                                       

Exclamation moth (Homaledra heptathalama, commonly called the Palmetto feeder)

Find this in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana

Exclamation froghopper (Neophilaenus exclamationis)

Widespread in Britain and Ireland

Full Stop butterfly or Full Stop Swift (Caltoris cormasa)

Can be found in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

Parenthesis Lady beetle (Hippodamia parenthesis)

Find this in North America

 

How about some mathematical insects? Inchworm?

 

 

Identification problems . . .

I saw a moth on Barry’s hat this morning and of course I had to try and identify it – without success so far, I have to say.

side view

detail - so delicate

Anyway, in the course of my research I came across this note –‘passes winter as an egg’ and that made me laugh. I started thinking how difficult it would be trying to metamorphose backwards, as it were, and fit into a receptacle now patently far too small. In human terms that is a ghastly thought, not to mention eye-watering.

I also discovered that the Ghost moth, among others, has no tongue and cannot feed. What a sad life that must be. I suppose it’s akin to human parents raising their young and then popping their clogs. I know it feels like that sometimes and often we feel redundant. Let’s be honest, we are redundant once the bank of Mum and Dad serves no further purpose and our young people have flown the nest and are busily growing their own credit ratings and treating overdrafts as a challenge rather than a limit (or was that just me?)

It is sobering to realise that so many beautiful creatures live very short lives. Dragonflies spend more time as somewhat unattractive nymphs. They live in the murky depths of ponds for three or four years, terrorising the more peaceable inhabitants. Then they emerge from their hard cases as diaphanous beauties, bringing colour and pleasure to onlookers, though not to the unfortunate insects they hunt without mercy. 

Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa)

Not as great a beauty as the Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea)

What a stunner - but completely helpless on the ground for dragonflies cannot walk . . .

Laying eggs

So much beauty, such a little life

They mate, they lay eggs, they die. However, they have no thought for the future, no understanding of their ephemeral existence. What do I know, though? Maybe they have a very complex belief system and look forward to dragonfly heaven where food is plentiful and life never ends. Would I have found them so attractive had I lived/existed in prehistoric times when they had wingspans up to 75 cms? Nonetheless, they are fascinating beasts.

However, and I hate to repeat this cliché, it’s all relative . . . We live but a blink of an eye when compared to galaxies. Who knows what the Mars probe will reveal? (provided it lands safely, of course!)