#tree cattle

A large herd of tree cattle clustered together, fittingly, on the trunk of a tree! This was the largest group I've seen yet, with what looked like over 50 individuals. It was either a clutch with very high survivorship or two herds that combined, though I don't know what the chances of that happening are. As you can see in the image, only one nymph remains in the herd. Once it molts into an adult, the cattle will leave the safety of the herd and split up in search of a mate. I found it kind of endearing that all these adults were waiting on one nymph to molt, but no man left behind!

Suuuure the first pal is a type of bark louse collectively known as tree cattle. I don't actually know what the singular form of that would be...you can't have one cattle....perhaps it can be a tree cow. Love that. The second is definitely a geometer! One of the carpet moths in Larentiinae. I think probably a somber carpet moth, Disclisioprocta stellata. And finally the last friend is a noctuid in the genus Euxoa, likely an army cutworm moth, Euxoa auxiliaris, but could be another in the same genus, their markings have a lot of overlap. Very nice friends, thank you for sharing!

Thank you soooo much for sharing this with me! I really loved seeing this! it really brightened my day!