Moth Appreciation

I was at a fancy do last night, and was having a conversation about bugs, as happens from time to time. The gentleman with whom I was conversing was aware of my predilection for insects, and wanted to know which was my favorite bug. Well, I don't have a favorite bug, but I might have mentioned the luna moth. He then told me that he hates moths, that moths are his nemesis (I don't remember if he actually used the word nemesis, but I am pretty sure he did).

I was a bit taken aback by his vehement stance against moths, and he explained that it is because they eat wool. I tried to convince him that there is only one kind of moth that eats wool (and I feel very foolish now that I did not say that it is actually the larvae or caterpillars of those moths that eat the wool), but I am not sure that I did. I also tried to convince him that all of the other moths are really quite amazing. I should have told him that some moths don't eat at all - they do all of their lifetime's worth of eating as caterpillars (such as the luna moth), but I am not sure he would have been swayed by that. Anyway, I really like moths.

Following the festivities I had a stroke of serendipity when I returned home and found an impressive gathering of moths on my front porch. I was very happy to see them (though I think my house guests thought I was exceedingly odd when I went outside in my ball gown to take pictures of moths in the middle of the night. But I had to go out before they flew away. The moths, not the house guests. Must be mindful of pronouns...).

So, here are a few of the dozen or so species of moths that were on my front porch last night (I didn't get pictures of all of them):

 I know the names of very few moths. I think this is a species of plume moth.

On the storm door.

Just to show how much I like them, a moth is today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Obviously not one from the porch last night, but I always prefer moths in the wild, as I call them. This one is quite a little beauty, about 3/4 inch long. Hard to get close to to photograph, due to an awkward location, and the fact that as I got close, it flew away.

 Here's a zoomed-in shot, though, to show how amazing it looks close-up. Moths look like tapestries.

Random bugs:

 Not just moths were attracted to the porch light last night. Here's another of those wonderful wasps from a recent evening.

 A beetle on the porch. Too high up for me to get a good shot.

 Bumblebee! I finally got a picture of one, after days of misses!

It was still pretty uncooperative, though, so I didn't get a good shot, and that's why it's not BBotD.

After being up into the mid 70s yesterday, today we were back on the chilly side, only briefly reaching into the low 60s before plummeting back down. I know that recently I was of the mind that days in the 50s were warm days, but not anymore. Now in order to be considered warm a day has to hit at least the upper 60s. Anyway, the bugs obviously liked yesterday's weather better, because I saw a lot more of them then.

I did see a lot of lovely buds today:

 Leaf buds opening over flower buds.

 Canada May flower

 Maple tree

 Pussy willow

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 A couple of days ago there was an orb weaver web in this exact location. Today there was a bowl and doily spider's web there.

 And here is the spider.

 Another bowl and doily web.

 I almost walked right through this web.

 Here's that picture zoomed in. The blue background is my shoe.

Another zoomed-in shot.