Lorenzo, Eggs, and Babies

First thing I did this morning was check on the dagger moth caterpillar, which I've named Lorenzo (to go with Alonzo.)

The early part of the day he worked at making the leaf disappear

But by about noon he had settled down on the central vein and stayed there the rest of the day

From the naked eye his spikes looked dangerously sharp and poisonous, but after looking at this closeup I dared to tickle them with my fingertip. They are very soft and flexible

Since I had my camera around my neck and went ahead and walked the perimeter of the yard and found two more McBuggers:

A Pennsylvania leatherwing (soldier beetle) who had been hiking through pollen

And a cute little skimmer who was posed patiently while I took lots of shots

Yesterday while sitting at the computer I noticed a funny little pattern on the window and investigated. It looks like an insect laid eggs on my window, and now I'll have another life form to keep my eye on.

Cluster of eggs

  

Close up of eggs

A few weeks ago I noticed something funny on the outside of the front door and I sort of brushed it off. When I looked more closely I realized they looked like insect eggs. Last night I happened to be looking through my insect book and saw the same type of eggs. I am happy to know that they are lacewing eggs.

I had already rubbed most of them off. They are teeny tiny white eggs on the tips of long thread-like stalks. The base of the stalks are stuck to the door

And speaking of eggs, the 5 turtle eggs that hatched last fall were kept through the winter by a surrogate mother, then passed to a 2nd surrogate mother for the spring and summer so they could live outside. They are going to stay there and hibernate for the winter. 

I was over there around 7pm, and the babies were putting themselves to bed, but these 3 were still out. They have different color dots on them so they could make sure they were all eating. Turtles tend to be quite piggy about their food

            

This surrogate family has a special compound just for the turtles, with a pond and all sorts of obstacles to   make the turtles' lives interesting. Here the western ornate has owned a little cave cubby at the side of the pond

And here are my 3 boys. Rebel is using Mr. Doc to demonstrate for Elwood how to be the boss

Moth Caterpillars

First, the junk house: the following evening the pods were gone and this was going on:

The next day all the rubble was gone. The kid's toys are still on the front patio, and the fsbo sign still is in the yard.


This evening I was playing ball with Eddie and noticed the small redbud transplant had an area of completely stripped leaves

So I looked around on the leaves and found this American dagger moth underneath a large leaf:

I looked around for more caterpillars, but found only a couple of more areas where the leaves had been stripped. I know already the first thing I will do when I get up tomorrow.


As long as I had my camera out I strolled the perimeter and looked for other buggy things. This spider thing, I'm not even certain it's a spider but I believe it is, on a rose of sharon bloom:

And since I'm posting the American dagger moth decided to include Alonzo, the carolina sphinx moth from last year:

Alonzo feasted for a few days on one of my potted tomato plants, and one day while at work I had decided to feed him to the turtles that evening. When I arrived home Alonzo was gone. I read they bury themselves in the soil, pupate, then emerge in the spring, I think. Alonzo was named by my co-worker who has to endure all my buggy adventures.


Today my mom and I took her new car out for a spin, and we made a quick stop at TM. I can't wait to get back out there. I have a follow-up appt for my stupid foot on Tuesday, and am hoping to get the green light to start walking/hiking again. Our weather is approaching perfection.