#lepidopteran

my friends got me hooked on the newest trend: making transparent bug images part 1/??

Joseph's Coat Moth

Agarista agricola

From the noctuidae family. They have a wingspan of 50-70 mm. They can be found in Australia.

Holy Fall Webworms! Look at these little guys hanging out under the sun. Though the web they're entangled in might seem harmful, these little caterpillars don't do anything substantially negative to the trees they live on! Considering we need more pollinators, I believe this is a positive.

Butterflies and moths are type III based on their survivorship curve, which means they have a high mortality rate in youth but not horrible mortality rates in adulthood. Only 1-10% of all caterpillars for many lepidopteran species end up making it through metamorphosis.

Here we a species of dipteran, probably a type of Hover Fly! The other photo is some kind of bumblebee.

Submitted for classification by @dumb-but-happy-trist

"This moth I found at around midnight attached to the window. There’s no better picture sadly."

Baphomet Moth for Day 5 of Mutation March and I'm including a lepidopteran from a previous year just because I liked it.

A moth inflating its wings that I found. I thought this was rather interesting, and something I have never seen in person before. It was scuttling across the ground before I saw it. Didn't immediately recognise what it was, but after being placed on the plant, it started doing this. I'm not sure what kind of moth it is, though I'm sure someone can enlighten me.

Additional images:

1) the moth shortly after being found

2) the moth after transfer to a plant

3) after the wings had been fully inflated