Yet another in my seemingly endless series of porch moths.


It sort of looks like some of the other moths I've seen and photographed, but I'm pretty sure it's a little different.



And some crane flies on a date. I actually made a video of a female crane fly digging in the ground to lay her eggs, and I tried but for some technological reason, it wouldn't upload. You can see it here on Flickr. While you're at it, why not look at my sphinx caterpillar video too.


My experimental caterpillar grew up just fine. It is now in a chrysalis, in a small enclosure at the arboretum, hopefully to eclose during our big plant show and sale this weekend.

Other "experiments" have not fared as well. A pair of tiny ground mantid nymphs that I brought home from the desert died after they failed to eat any of the tiny insects I provided for them. I tried aphids, ants, and "grass plankton", a mix of minute critters I netted up from our lawn. I wonder what they would be eating in the desert.

Also, the lovely green caterpillar I found last month died while we were on vacation. It had burrowed under the soil, but then it just shriveled up.