Moths and un-moths

A couple days ago, I mentioned that it’s moth season. These are the moths that do a pretty good job of imitating dead leaves.

The pupae look like this:

And they’re everywhere. Today, I walked over to Stanford and around the dish loop. I stopped at a particularly dense area of pupae to see if I might observe a moth in the process of emerging.

No, but I think this may be a larva in the process of pupating, soon to resemble its two neighbors. Either that, or it’s dead, dead, dead!

As always, however, careful inspection reveals unexpected points of interest. I don’t know why this little guy is hanging around, but I bet it’s not accidental.

This one is surely an evolutionary mimic of the pupae.

And getting right down to the bottom line, here’s one having lunch.

From the dish, I walked back through Palo Alto and stopped at the Gamble garden to see what interesting things might be on display.

A couple days ago, I mentioned seeing more of various small animals over the years, more than in previous years, harvestmen for example. I have no reason to believe that there are more harvestmen than there used to be, but I see a fair number of them now. I believe this is because I have learned to see them.

Fun.

Tags: harvestman, Stanford dish