Spotted, growing on a tree about a block from my house: Laetipous, AKA Chicken of the Woods.
It’s not my tree, or I’d be tempted to harvest it and fix it for dinner.
A sperm whale was found munching on a giant squid.
I had no idea it was such a messy meal, but I should have figured that was so — all those tentacles flailing about.
It was easy. Their wings weren’t fully inflated and dried, so they couldn’t escape.
Another one also emerged a few feet away, and there are three more chrysalides around my door.
Something is happening!
My wife spotted this pointy katydid the other day.
It has a wonderful name: the sword-bearing conehead, Neoconocephalus ensiger. Sometimes the taxonomists get it right.
The black widows are growing fast! The juveniles are getting their young stripes.
Only a few weeks old and growing prettier day by day.
I told you we’ve got multiple monarch chrysalides decorating our house right now.
They pig out on milkweed, and then they start wandering, and once they find a vertical wall they climb and climb until they find a nice overhang. And then they pupate.
Our garden is full of monarchs — here are three at once chomping through the foliage.
The caterpillars are doing great, but look at those poor leaves. They’re a wreck.
Also, the eaves of our house and any overhanging bit anywhere are beginning to be festooned with chrysalides.
Except that that would be a big mistake. We’ve got a great many dagger moth caterpillars nibbling on some of our trees.
Mary brought in a branch with several of these things to show me. I had to recoil and tell her to get them out of the house.
