The Totally Awesome Imperial Moth!

Imperial Moth!

While looking for more Boletes in the Yard today,  I stumbled upon what I thought was a leaf.   I quickly realized it was one of the Giant Silk Moths of America... Because we do not have any yellow leaf plants in our back yard... and I'm kind of a geek when it comes to Butterflies and Moths.  ( And fish... and Mushrooms.... Ok, Guess I'm just kind of a geek all the time.) 

Meadow Fritillary

Luna Moth. 

All those years of Chasing Butterflies and Moths across the U.S. and we have never found one of these before.   Iowa has certainly provided a number of Firsts in the lepidopterist community. (Lepidopterology?)   This was the first place where we found, both living and dead, Luna Moths!  There are also a number of Dainty and Tiny Sulphurs here, as well as a number of different whites.  Lately we have been commenting on the Meadow Fritillary who swarms the Kewash path. 

Giant Swallow tail.  

Also,  every now and then we find a Giant Swallowtail. A rather rare sight in Michigan. ( although, we did find them there... just not as often.) We also collected a number of Giant Silk Moths while living in Grand Haven.  Hawk moths in Lansing,  Underwings from Bay City and Saginaw.   It was a fun time.

The Elusive Zebra Swallowtail. 

But alas,  all of our collections were sold during the move.   And ever since then, we have not collected butterflies or moths at all!  Certainly not with the same zeal we once did.   We used to go out specifically to find certain butters in places where they were known to dwell in Michigan.  ( Never did catch or see a Zebra Swallowtail...  Supposedly they could be found in Paw paw.)

Lay some eggs... and then DIE!

One week to...Find A Mate....

But finding a new species is always exciting and now we just take a picture and post it on the blog.  It is better than killing something beautiful just so you can catalog it.  Then again, giant silk moths only live about a week after they hatch from their chrysalis. .  Just enough time to find a mate and lay a bunch of eggs.  People don't realize how great they have it with their camera phones and online cloud storage for pictures, places and brief descriptions of the places and things they have found. 

Field Bolete in the yard. 

Back in 2000, we only had this bulky "Jam Cam" that ate batteries for Breakfast, could only take 8 pictures before the storage was used up, and would download a grainy picture to the computer.  But it was Cheaper than buying film and having to wait a week for it to be developed!  We though the Jam Cam was the greatest .. at the time anyway. 

King Boletes!

And Lobsters!

It has been raining off and on for most of the day.   Cheryl has a Mushroom hunt planned for tomorrow. 

Target Species:  King Boletes and Lobsters!   Fingers crossed that we beat the deer to them this time... Or the fungus that attacks Boletes and breaks them down.  Fresh Boletes and Lobsters!   And any Chanterelles or other choice edible that we can find...   Thanks for stopping in.