Bird bug & dog people etal

[Calilasseia]

Also visiting the trap were these:

Brimstone Moth, Light Emerald (we had FIFTEEN of these on the night), and Blood-Vein ...

[Calilasseia]

And, two each of Poplar Hawk Moth and Elephant Hawk Moth - the latter was pristine, just look at those colours!

[Calilasseia]

That night brought us 58 species identified on the night, and there's possibly a dozen more to add to the tally.

The Light Emeralds formed their own bomber squadron around the light ... along with the best part of 20 specimens of Clouded Silver and over a dozen Green Oak Tortrix. Definitely a night to remember!

[Calilasseia]

Whoops, forgot the Peach Blossom!

Usually, we only see single specimens of this species ... on the night in question, we had five - an all time record count for one site

[Hobbit]

Amazing pictures Calilasseia.  The details and colours are incredible.  Until you started posting these pictures I had no idea there were so many different moths.  Thanks

[Calilasseia]

There are over 2,500 species in the UK fauna alone. Worldwide, the tally is 180,000 species, and no less than 35,000 of those can be found in Peru alone.

[pat]

Something a bit different. This delicate and lovely little critter is a spoonwing lacewing (nemoptera sinuata). I saw a couple of them on a recent trip to Bulgaria.

[TRex]

I'm almost completely clueless about insects, but managed a picture of this which I think might be a cicada emerging. Anyone able to make a positive identification?

[pat]

Definitely a cicada although I don't know which species.

[TRex]

Definitely a cicada although I don't know which species.

Thanks, Pat. Did a bit of reading and seems to be an annual cicada (multiple species here, so I am clueless about that) since the periodic cicadas aren't due this year.

[TRex]

Did some more reading. According to https://cicadas.uconn.edu/brood_13/

Illinois presents a particular challenge for understanding periodical cicada biology, because it contains both 13 and 17 year life cycles, all 7 currently recognized species, and five separate broods, some of which include disjunct populations.

https://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/common-cicadas-of-illinois/ lists more than twenty species across seven genera and many of the names strike me as confusingly similar ('Dark Lyric Cicada' versus 'Lyric Cicada'; '13-Year Decim' versus '13-Year Decula'); and at least three different species with a common name of '13-Year Cicada' [no wonder people insist on using the scientific name!]). My head is spinning.

But whatever species it was, it was striking in appearance.

[pat]

But whatever species it was, it was striking in appearance.

They are indeed. Needless to say, we don't have them in the UK but I always enjoy seeing and hearing them when I'm abroad on my birding trips. Some species 'scream' when handled. I remember managing to catch one in order to release it to a safer spot and was amazed at the noise it made when it was trapped in my hands.

[Calilasseia]

Speaking of insects that make noises ... Death's Head Hawk Moths squeak like mice when you handle them.

Then of course, there's the large array of insects that engage in stridulation (rubbing one part of the body against another to generate sound). Crickets and various Grasshoppers are of course well known stridulators, along with the Cicadas (which are to some people infamous for this!).

However, one group of invertebrates that most people don't usually associate with stridulation, is spiders. But, some of them do indeed stridulate, and I found a particularly striking example a few years back, in the form of Habronattus dossenus, a member of the Salticidae from Mexico. This one is particularly loud when stridulating for mating call purposes, as you'll hear when you fire up that YouTube video!

[pat]

Amazing, although I'm not convinced it was displaying to a live spider.

[lilys field]

Brilliant. Edgy. Awe-full.

Words fail. Please accept a long round of stridulation in gratitude for giving the uninitiated a glimpse of strange, eerie & stunning beings