The Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia)
Follow Phillip
on instagram
on facebook
on twitter
on YouTube
@phillipsnaturalworld
![]()
This female somehow got into the house. I put her on a reminder card and carried her back outside. I was able to identify her sex by the missing wing scales. She had likely recently mated, losing some wing scales in the process.
![]()
![]()
![]()
This specimen I found on the fence, kind of disoriented by a cool breeze. She had just laid hundreds of eggs. Click on the photo to enlarge.
![]()
The sex act in this species takes up to 24 hours during which time the male and female are constantly attached. During mating sessions, the wings of the male cover most of the female's abdomen, and this can sometimes lead tup to loss of wing scales. An extreme example is pictured below.
![]()
We've Read:
![]()
Police Net a Butterfly Killer,
and now He May Face Jail Time
The killer, a former body builder, stalked his frail victims at nature reserves, in one case clambering over a locked gate armed with a net before he chased them down, trapped them and carried them away, dead or alive.
![]()
The Butterfly, the Ant, and the Oregano Plant
It may be hard to imagine a ménage à trois, satisfactory to all parties, in which one member tries to dislodge another with a toxic gas and a third eats the offspring of the other two. But such an arrangement exists, and one of its members may even be sitting quietly in your kitchen's spice rack.
![]()
Monarch Migration Plunges to Lowest Level in Decades
The number of monarch butterflies that completed an annual migration to their winter home in a Mexican forest sunk this year to its lowest level in at least two decades, due mostly to extreme weather and changed farming practices in North America, according to the Mexican government and a conservation alliance report.
![]()
An Exaltation of Moths
Much-Maligned Kin of the Butterfly
Moth events are all the rage. They are a way to dispel some of the myths about moths—that they are all brown and drab, that they eat tomato plants and nibble on sweaters. Only a very few species are what might be considered to some to be pests.
We've Watched:
Just Add Zebras
John Oliver Uses Dancing Zebra Footage to Make "Painful" News More Bearable
"I think it's pretty clear, with things in America the way they are now, we need these zebras like never before," said Oliver. He provided 24 minutes of a zebra in front of a green screen dancing, reading the newspaper and being generally silly, encouraging viewers to add the footage to "painful moments" with the hashtag #JustAddZebras
. . . And The Internet Responded
and now He May Face Jail Time
The killer, a former body builder, stalked his frail victims at nature reserves, in one case clambering over a locked gate armed with a net before he chased them down, trapped them and carried them away, dead or alive.
It may be hard to imagine a ménage à trois, satisfactory to all parties, in which one member tries to dislodge another with a toxic gas and a third eats the offspring of the other two. But such an arrangement exists, and one of its members may even be sitting quietly in your kitchen's spice rack.
The number of monarch butterflies that completed an annual migration to their winter home in a Mexican forest sunk this year to its lowest level in at least two decades, due mostly to extreme weather and changed farming practices in North America, according to the Mexican government and a conservation alliance report.
Much-Maligned Kin of the Butterfly
Moth events are all the rage. They are a way to dispel some of the myths about moths—that they are all brown and drab, that they eat tomato plants and nibble on sweaters. Only a very few species are what might be considered to some to be pests.
We've Watched:
Just Add Zebras
John Oliver Uses Dancing Zebra Footage to Make "Painful" News More Bearable
"I think it's pretty clear, with things in America the way they are now, we need these zebras like never before," said Oliver. He provided 24 minutes of a zebra in front of a green screen dancing, reading the newspaper and being generally silly, encouraging viewers to add the footage to "painful moments" with the hashtag #JustAddZebras
. . . And The Internet Responded