Sunday, June 6, 2010

Giant Leopard Moth, Ecpantheria scribonia

Our garden is full of amazing and unexpected things, just look at this 5 cm long moth found by PP last weekend. Who expects something like this? Every year is different in the garden - one year we have japanese beetles invading, another groundhogs, and a third one it is turkey vultures mating on our chimney. This year's common animals seems to be ants, rabbits, and yellow snails. And the ever-present white-tailed deers of course, which seems so desperate they are even eating butterfly bushes (Buddleja) right now. Planting mint, sage and lavender in our borders instead of regular flowers have resulted in that we now really have nice thick borders again, albeit it is mostly mint and other herbs, which is not a bad thing, just unusual.

2 comments:

Chad Lebo said...

That is gorgeous little lady (or man). I have never seen one in Jersey or anywhere for that matter.

I hope you recorded the sound of turkey vultures mating in a chimney. Now that would be a ringtone all your own.

EH said...

I love the diversity of nature, this butterfly is wonderful. To think that DNA can hold info to create this, with all it´s details. Amazing!