As I’ll be traveling back to the U.S. on Valentine’s Day, here’s an early Valentine post for all the readers. It’s from Mark Sturtevant, showing his beloved insects in the throes of passion.
Here are some pictures that I took this summer which seem appropriate for Valentine’s Day. The first is a mating pair of Yellow-collared scape moths (Cisseps fulvicollis) on goldenrod. There is a similar species, Ctenucha virginica, but these differ in certain details. In any case, the bright colors of these day-flying moths may be to mimic wasps, or they are to advertise that they are distasteful. The two sexes look alike, but one can identify which is which by their antennae. [JAC: guess which is the male.)
The second picture shows one of the ‘sharpshooter’ leafhoppers. This one has various common names, but my favorite is the Candy-striped leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea). These small but very pretty insects are quite common around here. Although the two sexes again look very much alike, one can identify the female since she bears a sword-like ovipositor which is used piercing into plants and laying eggs.
And some cuteness from reader Keira McKenzie in Australia:
I haz a tail to tell – but not of cat. Of Possum. Of Trichosurus vulpecula – Brush-tailed possum – to be precise.It is Australia’s largest (and probably most common) aboreal marsupial, and is unbearably cute.A friend of mine, who is involved in the care of injured wildlife, has been fostering a young possum. She has had him since he was a wee wee thing smaller than a kitten (see first picture). Now, several months later, he is the size of a young cat and ready for ‘soft release’ (not this week when it’s going to be 40 & over degrees Celsius for most of the week – starting tomorrow. I would much prefer snow!) in a week or so.
So I’ve sent you a few pics of him coming out of his cage, sitting on his ‘mum’s’ arm looking at me, and clambering about.I have so many pics it was difficult to choose which ones to send. He is such a healthy little guy who loves rose petals, sprouts of some description but, at the moment, is not having a bar of that horrible broccoli 🙂
The foster program uses very very careful fosterers. He was a baby when found, so he learned to be a possum through himself, his own instincts, and encouragement from ‘mum’ to scamper and clamber and be inquisitive. he has instincts for ‘pouch’ but – nothing grows in isolation. So while interaction is not overly, there is enough for little one to have trust in the larger (human) being while not being too ‘humanised’.
His “soft’ release will be into a large cage where he will have his nesting box and food as well as the potential for interaction with other possums undergoing the same soft release program. interactions with humans is, at thhis point, minimised to the point of nothing. Eventually, when he seems to be feeding himself well and looking after himself, displaying all the skillz, they will release him during the day, encouraging him back and shutting him in for the evening. And some time after that, although food will continue to be provided, the door will be left open.
It’s a gentle, unhurried process, with possum deciding when he is ready to leave home.
At the moment, as displayed through clinging to mum’s arm (they ride on their mum’s back normally) and the need to return to his pouch, you can tell he’s no way ready to face life as an adult alone.
Here’s a photo from Wikipedia showing how they ride on the mother’s back:
The male is the one not doing the washing-up.
Certainly more attractive than the possums around here. But we love them anyway.
Those Candy-striped Leafhoppers are really cool.
I’d say the male scapemoth is the one with the feathery antennae so he can “smell” the female’s pheromones.
Cute possums and nice rescue story. Around here, possums seem to be the most common roadkill. They are nocturnal, and I guess they like to walk on the roads at night. The marsupial variety is much cuter.
Around here (NZ), possums (the introduced Aussie marsupial variety like the fella above) are also the most common roadkill, along with, I’m sorry to say, hedgehogs.
The possums are an introduced pest (some moron thought they would be useful for fur, as if we didn’t already have introduced rabbits, deer and goats as a horrid example of what introduced species do) and they promptly started eating the native ‘bush’ (rainforest). To the detriment, of course, of all the native species that would like to live there.
The hedgehogs were also introduced (why, I have no idea, except ‘cute’). They eat mostly snails, insects, or anything else they can catch. But I’d guess, given their obvious unsuitability for climbing trees or fitting into burrows, they’re probably less danger to avian wildlife than the introduced rats, cats, ferrets stoats and weasels (in heavens name *why*? Oh, Google says ‘to control the rabbits’. Ha ha). Unfortunately their one defensive move, which is to freeze and curl up into a spiky ball, doesn’t work on cars.
http://cr01.info/misc/Hedgehog.jpg
cr
I visited NZ (and fell in love with it) sixteen years ago. I was told then that, although cute, possums were regarded as vermin, to the extent that some people would deliberately try to kill them on the roads. Is this the case?
Yes, they are regarded as vermin, because of what they do to the ‘bush’. (They eat all the green shoots so the tree dies). DoC (Department of Conservation) drops quite a lot of 1080 poisoned bait to try to keep their numbers under control.
And yes, some people run over them deliberately, and also hedgehogs. I never run over hedgehogs, the poor little things are easy to avoid as they just curl up into a ball and sit still. Possums, there are a lot of them on the back roads at night, I don’t run over deliberately, but they have a habit of running about on the road rather erratically, I will aim to avoid them but I’m not going to slide off into the ditch because one swerved at the last moment. Quite a lot of rabbits too, but they have more sense and head for cover.
cr
Yes. There are culls of possums and their fur is called “Eco fur”. They are a pest that threatens NZ’s native species (they were introduced and aren’t native).
Speaking of introduced species that turn out to be a pest (like, every bloody one, what a surprise) I spent a couple of blasphemous hours yesterday clambering about in my small trees ripping off moth plant (a.k.a. kapok vine, cruel plant) which grows like crazy and smothers them, and Madeira vine (mignonette vine) which is even worse. Both were introduced as – get this – ornamental species. Bah!
(Madeira vine is worse because it grows dozens of rhizomes all over it. The book says ‘do not let these fall to the ground as they will resprout’. Try doing that while balancing halfway up a tree and yanking yards of vine towards you…)
cr
Not just on the roads (this sort of thing wouldn’t work where there were native mammals to worry about).
As a hedgehog sympathiser, I’m pleased to see – or at least hopeful – that these wouldn’t work on hedgehogs, who I think are too fat and not agile enough to get caught.
cr
I see from the last picture that the nicely furred tails of the possums is fur-less on the bottom, rather like the prehensile tails of new-world monkeys.
I love the leaf hoppers. I wish I could get big pictures of them. They are so damn small, fast, and springy & I can’t get close enough!
My theory, which is mine, is that a small fraction of the elusive critters will permit a lens coming in close. So I keep trying.
Of course in this case the success was b/c they were ‘busy’.
Very cute, the possum that is, but also very noisy when playing chasy on our metal roof in the middle of the night!
Cute and vicious. I came home from work one day and found one sitting on top of the refrigerator. Getting it out the door was pretty scary.
I’ve heard that. They have very sharp claws. I’ve also heard that, if you surprise one in your garden at night, do not get too close to it, as their instinct when surprised on the ground is to climb rapidly up the nearest available vertical object, and you do not want that object to be you.
(This may be an urban legend)
cr
I wouldn’t be surprised. I’ve certainly seen this behaviour with Bearded Dragons caught in an open field. 🙂
Love the insects, Mark! Now I guess I’ll have to start looking closer at what I’ve always been calling Ctenucha virginica around here.
I had some trouble deciding which name to declare. The C. virginica has a lot of iridescent blue on the pronotum, and that was what clinched it for me.
Thanks for the tip!
Always interesting when such similar looking critters are not only different species but in different genera as well!
Keira, darling shots of a darling subject! Thank you for all the explanatory info as well.