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danthebugman

danthebugman

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I was almost out the door today at work when one of the kennel girls came up and says "You like bugs right?". Well yeah, everyone at the clinic knows that...it's kinda how I got the nickname. Anyway she starts telling me about this huge moth that's in the dog walking area. Well anytime the words huge and moth are mentioned in the same sentence, I'm very interested cause it usually means it's a Saturniidae. Sure enough it was an Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis). So I found a box, scooped her (notice the antennae are not feather like) up and headed home. Of course my wife had a good time pointing out how incredibly nerdy I was as I shot some pics on the deck. Then I set her free next to our shed.





You can see in the first picture that she laid some eggs before I got home. Going to see if I can't get them to hatch :grin:.

Dan
 
W.B.

W.B.

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Cool looking moth. When I first scrolled down to look at the pic it kinda looked like a kids ice cream cone with wings.
 
twenty5

twenty5

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How big is it? Ya should have thrown a quarter in there for reference!
 
darb21

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Thats a very very cool moth. I need to see if I can find a catepillar pic that took last year. This thing was about as big as my shoe. Bright green with these weird yellow horn-like things on it. I'll see if I can find that pic when I get home tonight. I never identified the monster.
 
TreeFrog Frank

TreeFrog Frank

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Great pics, guys!

Yeah, Dan, I hear the nerd/geek/dork comments ALL the time at home!! By the way, I'm letting loose my son's "pet" spider. I'm sure we'll vacuum up something else cool very soon!! It was fun feeding him, though. I think my son about peed himself the first night when it jumped up and got that fly!!
 
danthebugman

danthebugman

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TreeFrog Frank said:
Great pics, guys!

Yeah, Dan, I hear the nerd/geek/dork comments ALL the time at home!! By the way, I'm letting loose my son's "pet" spider. I'm sure we'll vacuum up something else cool very soon!! It was fun feeding him, though. I think my son about peed himself the first night when it jumped up and got that fly!!
Click to expand...
If he liked the jumping spider so much you should try to find a trapdoor spider. I bet he'd really get a kick out of that :grin:. Here's a little bit about them from the U of Ark site:

"Trapdoor spiders live in silk-lined, underground burrows. In the United States, they are widespread in the East and in the Southwest north to Colorado. Ummidia is the most speciose genus with about 50 species, several of which are undescribed. Only Ummidia audouini (Lucas) and U. carabivora (Atkinson) have been reported from Arkansas. Burrows are often found on sides of forested ravines. They are usually less than five inches deep and are hidden under trapdoors that are hinged on one side. The trapdoors are about one inch in diameter, and they are constructed of silk camouflaged with soil and plant debris. The spiders are nocturnal, holding the trapdoor ajar at night while waiting to ambush passing prey. Females never wander far from their burrows. Males wander in search of mates in July and August. Spiderlings of at least some species disperse aerially by ballooning on silken threads caught in a breeze. When first disturbed, the spiders appear quite pugnacious and readily bite, but they soon calm down. In the 1920's, Dr. W. J. Baerg, head of the Entomology Department at the University of Arkansas, allowed a trapdoor spider to insert its fangs on the inside of his third finger and remain there for about a minute and a half. He experienced no appreciable effects other than the puncture wounds."

That bold section officially makes that guy a bad a$$.

Dan
 
mav_sd

mav_sd

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Awesome Moth and sweet pics all around... I really need to get a new camera so I can start taking some shots... this board is really a surprising inspiration for amateur photographers!!!

Cool.
 
r3db4r0n

r3db4r0n

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Hated my entomology teacher in college, but turns out I loved the class. As a result, I don't know much about insects and their cousins other than the fact I find them extremely interesting.

Thanks for sharing Dan!
 
danthebugman

danthebugman

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r3db4r0n said:
Hated my entomology teacher in college, but turns out I loved the class. As a result, I don't know much about insects and their cousins other than the fact I find them extremely interesting.

Thanks for sharing Dan!
Click to expand...
That's unfortunate, it's a fascinating field. I lucked out and the instructor that taught my entomology class was awesome! He was easily my favorite teacher (had him for some other classes too). I didn't study much for the class and aced all the tests, I also spent an inordinate amount of time in the field collecting for our lab project :grin:.

Dan
 
ciggy

ciggy

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Dan that is so awsome. My kids and I love science and are always on the lookout for stuff like that. Exciting about the eggs as well..I hope you can get them to hatch!
 
H

HalloweenHarry31

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Sweet moth Dan! Every time I am at the Movie Theater in town I look for some good moths, but all I see are generic brown moths of the tiny variety.

I need to get your opinion on a black spider that I found at my house the other day. Jen is freaking out thinking that it it a poisonous one, but all of the info that I can find leads to a Herpyllus ecclesiastics or Eastern Parson Spider. I will have to run it by and see what you think.
 
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