Yowzah!
Chris Clarke | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 8:36 am | #

beautiful, and a mystical experience in its own right. the markings remind me somehow of the samurai crab. thanks for sharing.
charles | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 9:40 am | #

Charles--
I just looked up samurai crab, and I see why this beauty reminds you of it--the soft color and symmetry.
This moth stayed for three days on the side of the building where I worked. I could hardly get any work done knowing it was out there.
Rexroths Daughter | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 9:58 am | #

Interesting, if you doubled or quadrupled it, you'd surely have a mandala, or one of the Rosacrucions Inviolable Roses. And what's up with that head. Are those antennae looking like plumes in someone's headress?
Speechless | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 10:16 am | #

Attaturk has an invertebrate on his blog today too, but it's not nearly so aesthetically appealing - it's a tapeworm.

Interesting how some creatures appeal to us, some we couldn't care less about, and others repel us. In the case of a tapeworm I can understand it, but in general, a problem for environmentalists is that people care about the "charismatic" species but most of what goes extinct just doesn't fire up our limbic systems.
cervantes | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 11:48 am | #

Cervantes,
Yes- the fired up limbic system. What is that about? I was trying to come up with that very idea when conveying what it felt like to see the bobcats. I'm still thinking about it. That attraction to the charismatic species has its dangerous side as well. Yes, environmentalists attempt to save them and their habitats, but that same attraction causes people to adopt wildlife and hold them captive as pets. That fired up limbic system-- what are we to do with it?
Rexroths Daughter | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 12:16 pm | #

I intend to be making a post on moth gardening and I'd love to use this Ceanothus silk moth photograph -- with credit to Dharma Bums, of course!
Jeffrey Caldwell | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 1:01 pm | #

Jeffrey--
Absolutely use it. In case it's useful to you, I worked at UCSC for nearly 15 years and I only saw a ceanothus moth once in all that time.
Rexroths Daughter | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 1:32 pm | #

Lovely!

Re: the charismatic species thing, I guess it won't hurt me to plug yet another essay by Marilynne Robinson...she wrote a piece called "Wilderness" that talks about this at some length. As Cervantes says, it really is a problem...
Phila | Homepage | 03.11.05 - 11:40 pm | #

Wow! That is a beautiful moth. Isn't it odd how beautiful they are and how strange their caterpillars look?
oldwhitelady | Homepage | 03.13.05 - 4:46 pm | #

Did you find the caccoon ? If you did can you please call me.
Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian Council
Teresa Reynaga
408 204-7993
Thank You Very Much
Teresa Reynaga | 11.19.05 - 8:20 pm | #