caterpillars

“Wings”

ESPatch Feb 2, 2013 12 comments

No…

butterfly wings.

Some fine art courtesy of a dead Gulf Fritillary I uncovered.

I was happy to break up the monotony of the dreaded leaf pick up to take these pictures.

If it hadn’t disintegrated a few minutes later, I may have still been taking them, anything is better than the dreaded leaf pick up.

Still a few more to go, but the Patch is almost back to its respectable self. A few more sunken limestone boulders to replace the small rocks on the right and I will sleep soundly once again…

Although…

There are always a few unmentionables to be found lurking inside the Patch, like this pinecone cactus which appears to have had it’s extremities nipped by the cold, and nobody wants that.

…just one more.

Back to butterfly wings for a moment.

This is a Pipevine Swallowtail, freshly emerged.

Battus philanor

It has a pixelated,

Matrix coloration to it.

“You can see the swallowtail, you can feel the air from its beating wings, but it too is only part of the construct. Ask yourself, did the butterfly fly to you or did yo…”

Okay, we get it Morpheus.

“You only think that you get it ESP, but your brain is really a prison, a trap, a..”

OKAY Morpheus!

My daughter rescued it from our rain gauge and made a new friend, well until she almost stepped on it.

I took this picture of the larva a few years back.

The males, like this one, have blue iridescent upper surfaces on their hind wings.

This crimson passion vine that is steadily engulfing my front porch was probably a host to this caterpillar.

I have also noticed some other bugs sucking juices from the plant.

These Largus bugs are showing up in large numbers in the Patch this year but they generally cause little injury to plants upon which they feed.

One final insect straight out of a science fiction movie is this soapberry bug:

Jadera haematoloma

Also known for obvious reasons as the red-shouldered bug and also the goldenrain-tree bug, I found this one in a hollow of a struggling redbud tree though, like Largus bugs, it does not cause any significant damage to plants (and trees) even with its somewhat menacing eyes.

eyes red eyes selective coloring 1680x1050 wallpaper_www.wall321.com_31

On this rather melancholic note I will leave you to ponder the following when you next fill up your bird feeder:

Human Ash Bird Feeder by Nadine Jarvis:

While some designers aim to shock just for the sake of it, others are sensitively attempting to solve problems related to issues that were once considered taboo. “Death is taboo – in fact it is one of the last taboos in Western society,” says Nadine Jarvis, one of many designers exploring issues such as cremation and burial. “Death is something that everyone has to deal with, yet there aren’t many options for our treatment of the deceased, and certainly none are very challenging to our existing belief systems”

These bird feeders are made of bird food, beeswax and human ashes. As the birds peck away, the urn disintegrates, leaving behind a wooden perch inscribed with memorial details about the deceased. “The ash is mixed with the bird food, causing the bird to eat the person,” says Jarvis.

Designer: Nadine Jarvis

Stay Tuned for:

“Off the Beaten Track”

All material © 2013 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Patch Panic”

ESPatch Oct 18, 2012 6 comments

Ach!

Scotty, as it turned-out was correct…she couldnae take nae mere.

I found this fruit-laden limb resting on the ground the other day and swiftly went in with a plank of wood as a support before any of the fruit spoiled. Messing around under the tree, trying to lodge the plank into position,

I looked up and saw this monster (picture taken post event) staring down at me over the side of a leaf, looking like it was about to fall.

Acanthocephala femorata

or Leaf-footed Bug.

As irrational panic grabbed me, pushing me vertical, I found myself entangled in a rolling world of satsumas that had now engulfed my entire head.

Was it on me? Was it on me?

The proboscis, the proboscis!

I let out my customary muffled groan usually reserved for nightmares and

only narrowly avoiding the adjacent barrel cactus (which incidentally is still developing more blooms), scrambled out sideways and up to my feet, all the while frantically shaking and slapping at my clothes.

I looked around for the massed crowd that surely had come out to witness my ridiculous spectacle, but as usual there wasn’t one.

Talking of massing crowds, this is one you certainly want to avoid.

Your days are numbered my writhing foes.

“What is wrong with siphon tubes ESP?”

Mosquito larva live in the water between 7-14 days and wriggle to the surface to breathe through their siphon tubes, yes I said siphon tubes…brrr. The larvae will shed their skin four times growing larger after each molting, on the fourth molt the larva changes into a pupa.

I hate mosquitoes and their tubes.

Sweet olives are filling up the Patch with their fragrance this week.

Bees are hard at work in the golden hearts of the Walska, and

in the celosia that has turned a deep shade of fuchsia.

I have a number that are laying flat on the ground turning up at the end. Celosia as a ground cover!

My palm grasses have got very large after our recent rains,

providing great ribbed foliage. Here you can see the tiny sharp hairs that make these leaves very sharp in one direction.

Moving along:

Whale’s tongue, snaking gopher and a few disturbing pine cone cactus fingers offer a very unusual look in the same hue.

These gophers are soon to have their heads cut off, new growth is already visible at the base.

The tribal war-paint on this head should be sufficient to deter any predators attacking this giant swallowtail caterpillar.

Well, perhaps all except one.

I have a bunch of these cleverly disguised bird droppings currently chomping away on my Mexican lime tree. The caterpillars will grow to about 2 inches before changing into a chrysalis. As these are fall caterpillars they may stay in the chrysalis stage over winter and emerge in the spring.

This agave somehow works with the industrial hardware around my gas meter.

In front of it my somewhat lanky Salvia leucantha keeps on blooming, it is currently

full of these little Beet Webworm

Spoladea recurvalis

moths, whose larvae most likely hosted on my celosia or wormwood.

Inspirational image of the week:

Lots of wine bottle corks lying around?

Studio 1am http://www.studio1am.com/ has come up with an innovative use of recycled cork…jewelry. Discarded corks are ground up and formed into blocks using environmentally-friendly adhesives. Designer Donna Piacenza then cuts each cuff from a single block of cork, which can then be used to store the jewelry, or simply as a display piece, with a beautiful ‘C’ shape hollowed out where the cuff fits.