The striking colours and patterns of the Citrus Swallowtail (Papilio demodocus demodocus) butterfly magnified under a macro lens show up a magificence of texture.
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Collage: Swallowtail butterfly
Insects
A Meal Fit for a Queen
The mighty power of tiny: ants may be small insects, but with collective power they can heft a load well above their body weight.
Psychidae – Bagworm larva
Mother nature and her bags of tricks has rustled up a delicious little surprise for this macro shot. A blob of moving twigs turns out to be a Bagworm (Psychidae). Neat! The larvae of this species constructs a spindle-shaped silk bag and then attaches pieces of twigs and leaves as a protective covering. This one is hungry extending it’s head through it’s covering and making good headway along the petals of this Moraea ochroleuca (aas-uintjie).
It senses my intrusion and withdraws behind it’s defensive bulwark, though you can still see it’s whiskery antennae.
Future: metamorphosis
An active little critter, this is the larval stage of a Mountain White spot moth. Researching it’s identification, I came across the description – a “ginger fuzzy-wuzzy”. It transforms through pupation into a gorgeously couture’d furry moth.
Take a peek at the “Future” here.
Ready for take-off
Solving the riddle of matching up moths and their larvae is always a nice little challenge. I haven’t yet got a positive identification on this moth which fluttered through the open kitchen window a couple of nights ago. I was chuffed to see it’s rather elegant markings and aimed to take photos the next day. It looked very sluggish in the morning and I didn’t think it would revive. Yet once outside I managed to take a couple of shots when it’s antennae started vibrating and with a revving up of the wings it was off, winging it’s way over the garden hedge. Meanwhile I’m taking a guess that this is the larva. I think the species belongs to the Tussock’s and that the colours and design cross match rather nicely. During autumn the caterpillars were pretty active devouring a patch of statice plants situated quite close to the kitchen so the odds are good that this could be a positive match.
