Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: moth

Plain but still pretty, I found this moth sitting on a leaf and I could see that it was a beauty, even though it didn't look very fancy. What do you think?! :)

(+1 picture in a note) The other day I featured the picture of a lovely coccoon that I found on our property. I took the coccoon inside and placed it into a jar, which I then watched carefully each day. About two weeks later I was delighted to find this beautiful moth sitting on a branch inside the jar. Can you say stunning?! :D After admiring it and showing it to Steve, I brought the moth ouside and placed it on the side of an Oak tree. I decided to replace the bark with a Birch tree texture so it would be easier to see the moth.

8 more pictures in notes above! :) Hooray! Hooray!!! Sing to the high heavens, for Emerging Day has arrived!!! Miracles of all miracles, I can hardly believe my own two eyes!! I have had the distinct and awesome opportunity to successfully raise Clio Tiger Moths from eggs through all caterpillar stages, and through the month-long duration of their pupa stage as they transformed into adult moths, and now they are emerging in all of their incredible beauty for me to share with you!! The entire event from start to finish is simply AMAZING to me. I have never tried to raise caterpillars before, and I thought I might end up killing them all, but I have somehow managed to do a good job, as they are now hatching as adults, one by one, with wet and wrinkled wings. I find them after they wiggle out of their cocoons and sit still, slowly pumping blood into their wings to inflate and flatten them over the course of many hours as they dry. At night time I am releasing them onto the white railings on our back deck where they can sit safely camouflaged and when they are ready, they fly away into the night! Each will "overwinter", clinging to the bark of a tree until the springtime, when they will come out of their hibernation state and feed before mating and beginning the cycle all over again! Isn't it an amazing miracle?!! WOW!! I have a huge show to share tonight, with 7 different images of the moths and pupae about to hatch! I will make all of the images available for closer inspection but they will also be viewable here as insets on the picture above, which shows a newly emerged adult with rumpled wings! :) Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne; 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer who, in the mid-20th century, strongly influenced the revitalisation of the art of home cookery with articles and books about European cuisines and traditional British dishes. Wikipedia: Elizabeth David

6 more pictures in notes above! :) A couple of weeks ago, I shared some pictures of some caterpillar eggs I discovered, and then I found some beautiful Tiger moths which appear to be the ones who laid the eggs. I decided to bring a 2-inch-long section of eggs home with me, leaving behind almost all of the eggs just in case they didn't hatch indoors. I put them in a plastic container with hole-pricked plastic wrap and waited. And waited. I worried if I had done a bad thing, but hoped they would be ok. A week later, at 3 in the morning, I woke up in a panic! "OH NO!! WHAT IF MY LITTLE BUDDIES HATCHED AND DIED!!!" I turned on the light in the kitchen and after being blinded for a minute, I thought that I could hear music playing from inside the container. "WHAT THE???" I asked myself, and I looked into the container... (Play this in the background while you read! :D Kool & The Gang: Celebration ) "There's a party goin' on right here A celebration to last throughout the years So bring your good times and your laughter too We gonna celebrate your party with you"... Why, the place was CRAWLING with little fuzzy wuzzies!! They were everywhere! On the floor, on the sides and the plastic wrap ceiling too! ...and they had NO FOOD. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I pulled on some clothes (can't go running out in the meadow in my skivvies after all!) and ran outside and into our smaller meadow to the Milkweed patch there, plucked a few leaves, and zoomed back. I pinched the leaves into smaller pieces and placed them into the container, coaxed a few towards the munchies...and as I sat gasping for breath, I watched my tiny charges. Because I am blessed with extremely good close-up vision, I was able to watch these 1/16" caterpillars as they noticed the milkweed and then...nibble nibble nibble, munch munch munch...HOORAY!!!! They were EATING!!!!! Once I could see that they were making their way to the tasty goodness, I dribbled a few droplets of water inside, covered them back up and went back to bed. The next morning I got up and took a peek Every single caterpillar--about 50 I'd say--had found its way onto the leaves! There were munched holes and little lines of eating all over! I was overjoyed. That was nearly two weeks ago. The caterpillars are eating like little piggies and I bring them new leaves every day. They are probably about 1/4" in size now and as you can see, their latest hairstyle is extremely fancy and enviable! :D I will be moving them into a larger container tomorrow because they're outgrowing the tiny plastic box I had for them! The OINKERS! :D This project has been such fun for me. I've never raised caterpillars before and it's something I've wanted to try for years. I would like to thank Dean Morley and all of you who encouraged me to try raising these little guys. It's so exciting to see them getting bigger every day! I'll be posting updates with new developments as they occur! :)

I have been finding these tiny moths on our porch at night, and this time I found one in our kitchen! I couldn't resist, so out came the macro flash and I got several pictures to share!

Here you can see how interesting the wings look, very different than other moths I have seen.

BUTT VIEW! :D :D All silliness aside, isn't this a strange looking moth? Very interesting to see how its wings lay!

Here is a close-up of the white moth I found today. She looks like royalty in her beautiful white fur coat! Thanks very much to Art (Leapfrog) for positively identifying this beautiful lady as a Clio Tiger Moth (Ectypia clio)! ! If you would like to know more about this moth, here is a page to look at!: Pacific Northwest Moths: Clio Tiger Moth A Few Fun Facts About Moths! • The Hawk moth (Sphinx) is the worlds fastest flying insect attaining speed of over 50 kph • Moths make up 80 percent of the order lepidoptera. (Butterflies, Skippers and Moths) • Moths navigate by two methods. They use the moon and stars when available and geomagnetic clues when light sources are obscured. • Quite a few moths fly during the day, such as the Hummingbird Clearwing, Virginia Ctenucha and the Spear-Marked Black.

3 pictures in notes above! :) I went out to take pictures of milkweed blossoms today and also to see if I might find some different eggs on the leaves. Though I didn't find another kind of egg, look what I found resting under some milkweed blossoms, and right next to many stems that were completely covered in eggs!! I think it's a pretty safe bet that I found out what these eggs will turn into! (Still I won't know for sure until the eggs that I have hatch--they are exactly the same as these ones) Thanks very much to Art (Leapfrog) for positively identifying this beautiful lady as a Clio Tiger Moth (Ectypia clio)! ! If you would like to know more about this moth, here is a page to look at!: Pacific Northwest Moths: Clio Tiger Moth Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world. Wikipedia: Mahatma Gandhi Explored on July 24, 2013. Highest position, page 2 (#37).

Tiny cricket with Cigar Casebearer moth larva Thanks to Phil Huntley-Franck for identification information!

[best appreciated at full size against black] We often leave the porch light on at night to see what sorts of insects will come flying around. This little guy was one of our first moths of the year! As he clung quietly to the wall, I tried to get a close up of his cute little face. When I looked at this image on my computer, I was surprised to see that he's got a fuzzy beard!! I hope you like this little guy too! :D This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] The other day I posted an image of a budding Miniature Lupine. Right after I took that picture, I noticed something moving just ahead of me in the grass. I didn't have to look closely, because this guy is a good 1" long and he was ga-lumphing along like a walrus out of water being chased by a land shark! He's so chubby I thought the earth would shake as he moved by! When I looked at my pictures on my computer, I couldn't believe it! This guy looks just like a Graboid from one of my all-time favorite movies, Tremors!! He even looks like he's exploding out of the ground! In fact, I would not be at all surprised if they didn't use a larvae like this as a model. I have absolutely NO IDEA what this will turn into, but it certainly didn't behave like a regular caterpillar. It didn't have feet except at the hind end, and I think those were just for hanging by when it makes its coccoon. I think it might be some kind of beetle larvae? Whatever it was, it was freakin' me out! :D Cool Trivia Fact: My husband worked on many of the miniature special effects for Tremors!! Yay Steve!! This image was taken in April, 2012.

Here are several pictures I took of various moths in the past few months. The top one has a really beautiful pattern and a very interesting pair of long antennae. It's only about 1/4" long, and its antennae are twice as long! Amazing! The second moth is about the same length and I found it drinking nectar from a Woodland Star blossom. The last pair of images show a Propertius Duskywing Skipper. The first is a close up portrait, the second shows the full body, originally posted back in April. (By the way, a skipper is inbetween a butterfly and a moth. Some are more like a butterfly, others are more like a moth. If you'd like to know more, click on the full body picture to read about the wonderful skipper!)

Last night I let the dogs out for the last time before we all went to bed and I noticed a moth on the porch wall. When I got a good look, I just about fell over, WHAT A BEAUTY!!! I was really tired when I stepped outside, but the second I saw this moth, I sprang to life and told Steve that I had to take pictures of an amazing moth I had found! On went the macro flash and I got my pictures! :) A *HUGE THANKS* to Bennet Kent for identifying this moth for me! I'm so happy that I know what species this is: the Ornate Tiger Moth! One of the things that drives me crazy about taking pictures of critters that land on the outside walls is that they are white and the paint isn't smooth at a macro scale. It suddenly occurred to me that if I could find a picture of white birch bark, I could just use that texture instead of the white wall. I can't believe how great it worked, it's just about impossible to tell that this moth is actually on a white wall! And now that I have the texture, I'll see about finding some others and this way I won't be so against taking pictures of the amazing insect life that we find at night when we leave the porch light on! :D HOORAY! A huge THANKS to Ann over at Doodles and Jots , who has a whole page full of fabulous bark textures in a very large size, perfect for using as replacement textures for undesirable backgrounds! :) Russell Lynes (Joseph Russell Lynes, Jr.) December 2, 1910 – September 14, 1991) was an American art historian, photographer, author and managing editor of Harper's Magazine. Wikipedia: Russell Lynes

This moth is just so incredibly beautiful I can hardly believe it's real!! I'm so happy I got such nice pictures!! Thank to Bennet Kent for identifying this moth for me! Birch bark texture by Ann at Doodles and Jots