Wildlife early 2009

[Anthony Darby]

I'm working on it.
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kjMJ5WYECvM/RdC6nXF0h3I/AAAAAAAAATQ/diF6yYMFDiA/s400/green%2Btea%2Btapioca2.JPG&imgrefurl=http://fuelyourbody.blogspot.com/2007/02/green-tea-tapioca.html&usg=__P0Rk24GFCwFSiM-ed17IVVU8paQ=&h=300&w=400&sz=16&hl=en&start=7&um=1&tbnid=TJI4JbWLVrqWhM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtapioca%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

[Lesley Cox]

The lemon sago pudding that was dished up to boarders at high school (I was a day girl, thank heaven) did look exactly like frog spawn, masses of little gluey round balls, a lurid yellow - never saw a lemon, lemon essence I suspect. The boarders told horrible tales about it and I believe it was sometimes stashed away and used later as missiles.

On the other hand, my mother sometimes made a sago plum pudding which was very nice, much moister then the plum duff type. The sago was soaked in brandy before adding to the mixture.

[Anthony Darby]

This one is really incredible...
Maybe someone know its name?

I have had this email, regarding the beautiful pink moth, from Erez Simon, a Lepidopterist in Israel:

"Hi,

This is indeed a beautiful moth – and it’s the first time I see it…

Can you please send me the exact location and date that this photo was taken at?

It looks like a member of the Noctuidae family (largest group in Lepidoptera).

Thanks"


 

[Anthony Darby]

I have had a suggestion that it may be a Eublemma sp.?

[Maggi Young]

Eublemma purpurina  or  Eublemma cochylioides are the closest look-alikes, but the one pictured in the Forum is even more spectacular! Definite similarities, though, to my eye, not a perfect match.... but if lepidopteran (is this a  word??) taxonomy is anything like botanical taxonomy, that means little!
http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-22256.htm  Eublemma purpurina   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozwildlife/2442320431/  Eublemma cochylioides (but Australian???)

Here's Oron's photo again...... of the lovely moth on....Scutellaria utriculata ( name added 14th March)

[Anthony Darby]

I also like the wee blokes in cassocks at the top of that furry plant. Furry boots it fund?

[fermi de Sousa]

I also like the wee blokes in cassocks at the top of that furry plant. Furry boots it fund?

Yes, Oron, you haven't identified the plant for us yet!
While photographing some flowers in the rock garden I glanced down to see an unwelcome sight
(Look away now, Maggi!)

Latrodectus hasselti, the female Red-Back Spider, which can deliver a rather nasty bite!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Seems she has a red tummy too Fermi.

[Anthony Darby]

I remember the gardeners at Cinchona botanic garden in Jamaica (5000' in the Blue Mountains - people drove up there and wrecked their car suspension just to see British weeds) were afraid of the black widow spiders (Latrodectus mactans). They would 'spot' one and take the day off. I showed the head gardener one (they were common) and from his response he was completely unaware that this was  a black widow. They had been running away from the harmless birdeaters that were not so common. I have found them also in Mexico. In southern Spain there is another species, L. tredecimguttatus which has more red. The reason the Australian version is called the 'red back' is that, in addition to the mandatory red hour-glass on the underside, they usually have a large red mark on their back. They are also called 'jockey spiders'. Their bite is dangerous but only fatal in exceptional circumstances, and doesn't cause the damage that, say, the brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa ) of the USA does. The real nasty is the Sydney funnel web spider (Atrax robustus). I have heard that you need different antidotes for male and female bites!

[Anthony Darby]

Eublemma purpurina  or  Eublemma cochylioides are the closest look-alikes, but the one pictured in the Forum is even more spectacular! Definite similarities, though, to my eye, not a perfect match.... but if lepidopteran (is this a  word??) taxonomy is anything like botanical taxonomy, that means little!
http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-22256.htm  Eublemma purpurina   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozwildlife/2442320431/  Eublemma cochylioides (but Australian???)

Here's Oron's photo again...... of the lovely moth on....Scutellaria utriculata ( name added 14th March)
(Attachment Link)

A further suggestion from Dubi Benyamini (Israel) via Eddi John of the Amateur Entomologists Society is Pyrrhia treitschkei . Dubi found it in Talhouk's book "Diversity of Moths in Lebanon" page 179.
http://www.lepiforum.de:80/cgi-bin/lepiwiki_vgl.pl?Pyrrhia_Treitschkei

[Maggi Young]

A further suggestion from Dubi Benyamini (Israel) via Eddi John of the Amateur Entomologists Society is Pyrrhia treitschkei . Dubi found it in Talhouk's book "Diversity of Moths in Lebanon" page 179.

This type of moth does  appear to have the more "furry" cape that is so evident in Oron's photo ....

[Oron Peri]

Ooops sorry Fermi,
I forgot to say, the plant's name is Scutellaria utriculata, a common plant growing in stony places on Mt. Hermon.

[Gerdk]

Botanical Garden Wuppertal:

A Grey Heron watching visitors and vice versa

Gerd

[Lori S.]

On a little larger scale, mountain sheep at a mineral lick, on the edge of the highway through Kananaskis... a common sight there.
Hoary marmot, at home in the rockfall/moraine.

[Anthony Darby]

The pink moth has been positively identified. See above.