Wednesday 7 April 2010

Grand moths

Moths, I've found, are a bit like London buses. They are a standard unit of measurement for dinosaurs and giant squid. None for ages and then they all come along at once. Over the past few days, the windows have been covered with them. Not any old moths, mind you, but with aposematically coloured ones. That is, moths decked out in bright warning coloration that signalled their unpalatability to predators. Sometimes, things are not what they seem and bright colours are a con job pulled by a sheep in wolf's clothing. But I assumed truth in sdvertising with these three and did not bother to work out whether they were full of toxins or just full of bluff.

(And, yes, I do need to clean my windows again. That last one is on the wall. My windows may be dirty, but I can still see through them.)

Paralacydes maculifascia (Arctiidae)


Asota heliconia dama (Aganaidae)


Bracca rotundata (Geometridae)


When I went outside last night to photograph the Bracca, I disturbed a large huntsman spider that had been sitting on the screen door. It ran over my hand. I said something along the lines of 'Oh, goodness! What a big spider', but managed to get a pic of it as it scuttled off into the car port. I didn't measure it accurately, but it was pretty much the same size as my hand. No idea what it's feeding on. Possibly flying foxes and bandicoots.