I'm very tempted to draw some of these amazing butterflies/moths I've seen
The last few nights lots of small moths have been coming to the verandah light, and the dozen or so geckos that live on the verandah have been coming out at the start of the evening, and leaving the "dinner light" a few hours later with their bellies full of moths, the night not even half over.
But some larger and more interesting representatives of the order Lepidoptera have been coming to the light, too.
Tonight I saw this gorgeous moth, sitting on a shirt that was hung outside to dry:
Who ever said moths were drab? I really want to paint this one for my next butterfly-series ACEO I think! Look at those markings and colours! This one seems to be a White-Banded Noctuid Moth, Donuca rubropicta.
There was another verandah sighting of an interesting moth the other night. I took a photo of this gorgeous creature because I liked its markings, and upon closer inspection of the photo, found that there were some sort of mites or parasites on its wings! On a whim, I sent the picture in to the Queensland Museum, wondering what was happening here. I'm sure there are parasites that prey on moths, I've just never seen them before.
This is the moth in question, with a closeup on some of the mites:
And this is the reply from the Museum:
"The animal in your photos is a Granny's Cloak Moth (Speiredonia spectans). These moths roost in houses, caves and hollow trees during the day. Interestingly, we still don’t know what the caterpillars of this species look like, or what plants they feed on.
The red mites are, as you suspected, parasitising the moth. I can’t say exactly what species the mites are."
Fascinating creatures, these moths!
[Edit:] also interestingly, and as you may have guessed from the pictures, these two species belong to the same family, Noctuidae. Being the daughter of a biologist, I love finding out latin names of things.
But some larger and more interesting representatives of the order Lepidoptera have been coming to the light, too.
Tonight I saw this gorgeous moth, sitting on a shirt that was hung outside to dry:
Who ever said moths were drab? I really want to paint this one for my next butterfly-series ACEO I think! Look at those markings and colours! This one seems to be a White-Banded Noctuid Moth, Donuca rubropicta.
There was another verandah sighting of an interesting moth the other night. I took a photo of this gorgeous creature because I liked its markings, and upon closer inspection of the photo, found that there were some sort of mites or parasites on its wings! On a whim, I sent the picture in to the Queensland Museum, wondering what was happening here. I'm sure there are parasites that prey on moths, I've just never seen them before.
This is the moth in question, with a closeup on some of the mites:
And this is the reply from the Museum:
"The animal in your photos is a Granny's Cloak Moth (Speiredonia spectans). These moths roost in houses, caves and hollow trees during the day. Interestingly, we still don’t know what the caterpillars of this species look like, or what plants they feed on.
The red mites are, as you suspected, parasitising the moth. I can’t say exactly what species the mites are."
Fascinating creatures, these moths!
[Edit:] also interestingly, and as you may have guessed from the pictures, these two species belong to the same family, Noctuidae. Being the daughter of a biologist, I love finding out latin names of things.