Lepidoptera - Tumblr Posts
Link to my original 500px post: http://500px.com/photo/51392788/tattered-wings-by-sue-mcd?from=user_library Thanks for sharing "Tattered Wings" by Sue McD (500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough
Link to my original 500px post: http://500px.com/photo/46828212/at-my-post-by-sue-mcd?from=user_library Thanks for sharing "At My Post" by Sue McD (500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough
Link to my original 500px post: http://500px.com/photo/62600383/i-spy-butterfly-by-sue-mcd?from=user_library Thanks for sharing "I Spy...Butterfly" by Sue McD (500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough
Link to my original 500px post: http://500px.com/photo/47158162/my-green-world-by-sue-mcd?from=user_library Thanks for sharing "My Green World" by Sue McD (500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough
Link to my original 500px post: http://500px.com/photo/52560232/green-white-and-brown-by-sue-mcd?from=user_library Thanks for sharing "Green, White and Brown" by Sue McD (500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough
Link to my original 500px post: http://500px.com/photo/42748814/sunny-by-sue-mcd?from=user_library Thanks for sharing "Sunny" by Sue McD (500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough
Link to my original 500px post: http://500px.com/photo/71435927/garden-meetup-by-sue-mcd?from=user_library Thanks for sharing "Garden Meetup" by Sue McD (500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough.
"Opaline" photo by Sue McD on 500px. Copyright © Sukey McDonough. A gorgeous White Morpho butterfly (Morpho polyphemus).
"Onward Spring" photo by Sue McD on 500px. Copyright © Sukey McDonough. Poplar Admiral butterfly (Limenitis populi)
"Leaf Strolling" photo by Sukey McDonough on LadyBookChronicles (Sue McD on 500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough. A Malachite (Siproeta stelenes), bright and pretty, sits comfortably on a leafy shrub
"Sunny Morning" by Sukey McDonough (Sue McD on 500px). Copyright © Sukey McDonough. All rights reserved.
https://500px.com/photo/96726665/sunny-morning-by-sue-mcd?from=user_library
"Blue Morpho on Sand", first posted on 500px. Copyright © Sukey McDonough. All rights reserved.
These little cuties are very cool, but I still don't see 'lobster'... I'd be really curious about the provenance of the origin of the common name (which seems to date back to at least the early 1800s, from the little information I've been able to uncover).
The adults seem unusual in that, in their normal resting position, their hind wings protrude from beneath the fore wings. Almost like... the tail of a lobster? Hmm...?
Definitely on my big list of bugs I would love to see in the wild at some point!
Of course, in Dutch, they also have a common name based on the appearance of the caterpillars; they are known as Eekhoorn (squirrel!)
Lobster moth caterpillars, pupa, and adult moth, Stauropus fagi, Notodontidae (Prominent Moths)
This species is named for the crustacean-like appearance of the caterpillar. The arching pose shown in many of the photos above is their threat display. Found throughout Europe and much of Asia.
Photos 1-3 by ramune_vakare, 4 by martinbishop, 5 by jonatan_antunez, 6-10 by sskorpio
Butterflies are but one small subset of the glorious diversity that are moths
btw we as a society need to redeem the reputation of moths. Butterflies are seen as beautiful and beneficial and a normal thing to like, but moths are gross and creepy and ugly???
It's so dumb! Moths can be beautiful and colorful like butterflies can be and they are important pollinators! They visit flowers that bees ignore! Moths are a way larger and more diverse group than butterflies anyway!!
A global phylogeny of butterflies reveals their evolutionary history, ancestral hosts and biogeographic origins
Kawahara, Storer, Carhalho, et al.
ABSTRACT
Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events.
However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are lacking.
We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,300 butterfly species, sampled from 90 countries and 28 specimen collections, to reconstruct a new phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera.
Our phylogeny has strong support for nearly all nodes and demonstrates that at least 36 butterfly tribes require reclassification. Divergence time analyses imply an origin ~100 million years ago for butterflies and indicate that all but one family were present before the K/Pg extinction event.
We aggregated larval host datasets and global distribution records and found that butterflies are likely to have first fed on Fabaceae and originated in what is now the Americas. Soon after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, butterflies crossed Beringia and diversified in the Palaeotropics.
Our results also reveal that most butterfly species are specialists that feed on only one larval host plant family. However, generalist butterflies that consume two or more plant families usually feed on closely related plants.
Read more:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02041-9
Time for my annual petition to rename grass veneer moths to furious grass veneer moths, because every single one of them is a tiny wedge-shaped ball of rage 🦋🌾😡
Look at that livid little mush. A moth that will burn down the cisheteropatriarchy with us, just as soon it can get it's paws on some tiiiny matches and the dexterity to use them.
This moth is also a good reason to keep some unmowed grass if you have a garden - even a little long grass around the edges will help this gloriously furious moth friend. And it will help in return by being part of the food chain of lots of other wildlife! Thank you from the Moth Promotional Board ✨🦋✨
oh my god they're called snout moths. i was so close. ive been calling them nose moths this whole time
sneep snorp
(Microcrambus elegans)
This is absolutely wonderful, I adore this!!
Mushrooms hunting
It's time to go forest!
Moth Month May #1
For the rest of May, every day, I’ll post a cool fact about moths! I’ll post a cool picture with each one. Starting off small, the tiniest moth in the world is Stigmella maya, with wings only 1 millimeter long!
This super cool moth native to the Yucatán peninsula is also smaller than every butterfly in the world, the smallest of which being ten times as large!
