More Magic

One of the most magical things about the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory and Gardens in South Deerfield, Massachusetts is how so many butterflies can manage to virtually disappear before your eyes. You have to be very observant just to find some of these masters of “crypsis,” another word for camouflage.

Butterflies are generally pretty obvious and colorful when they are flying or feeding at flowers. Those at rest, wings closed over their backs, are often colored in earthtones of browns, grays, or greens on the underside, making them so inconspicuous as to be easily overlooked altogether. Even an entire cluster of individuals, like these common crows, Euploea core, dangling from a vine, can be easily dismissed as dead, drooping leaves. Native to India, crows are in the same family as our Monarch butterfly.

Some butterflies take hiding one step further by resting on the underside of leaves. This is also how butterflies shelter themselves from downpours and other inclement weather. Hanging beneath foliage in the butterfly house, this Malachite butterfly, Siproeta stelenes, easily avoided detection by visitors not accustomed to having to hunt for such beauties. The neotropical Malachite actually makes its way into the U.S., occurring in extreme southern Florida and Texas as well as Central America and northern South America.

The ultimate in true camouflage is demonstrated by yet another butterfly known as the Indian leaf, Kallima paralekta, one of several tropical Old World species known collectively as “leafwings” or “dead leaf butterflies.” Not only are the closed wings of the insect shaped like a leaf in profile, but the markings on the underside even include a “midrib,” vaguely visible on this tattered specimen.

Magic Wings also displays some other insects that defy efforts to describe the extent of their cryptic appearance. Enormous tropical walkingstick insects of several varieties are so nearly invisible as to cause one to question whether there is anything other than plants inside the cage. This close-up of one specimen confirms that this is indeed an animal rather than a vegetable, complete with a visible eye, antennae, and legs.

Walkingsticks still pale in comparison to their relatives the “walking leaf” insects of southeast Asia. Yes, the yellow object in this image is an insect, viewed from the side. These members of the genus Phyllium seem to literally be what they eat, as they are vegetarians that consume the pigments of their host plants. Not surprisingly, in the autumn when leaves are losing chlorophyll and more colorful pigments that are normally masked come to the fore, the insects get a dose of bright oranges, yellows, and reds. Voila! The insect’s built-in fashion sense doesn’t miss a beat.

More moth fashions

While some moths came to the “Moth Ball” all gussied-up in their best black and white, or subtle and elegant pastels (please see the initial entry in my companion blog Sense of Misplaced), others sported complex patterns that rendered them virtual wall flowers, easily camouflaged on the bark of a tree, if not the wood siding on David Small’s shed.

Chief among these was this amazing tufted thyatrin, Pseudothyatira cymatophoroides, a member of the family Drepanidae that includes the hooktip moths and false owlet moths. It was one of the specimens to draw real oohs-and-ahs from the human spectators mingling among the winged wonders.

A wonderful salt-and-pepper pattern was displayed by this aptly-named “oak beauty,” Nacophora quernaria, one of the inchworm moths in the family Geometridae.

A chip off the old tree branch was what this “white-headed prominent” in the genus Symmerista resembled, its lovely white accent line adding to its disguise by imitating an exposed shard of underlying wood.

Perhaps the ultimate in obscurity was this slender little owlet moth in the subfamily Acontiinae that came incognito as, of all things, a bird dropping. Even more stunning, it is only one of over eighty species in that group, the majority of which are also bird-dropping mimics. Well, there is no accounting for taste, I suppose. More to come….

Desert Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers are some of my favorite subjects to photograph. You can creep close to them without spooking them, so confident are they in their camouflage. They are basically two-dimensional, so it is easy to get a lateral view of them with everything in focus. Lastly, they are common insects.

Most diurnal grasshoppers belong to the family Acrididae, known as “short-horned grasshoppers” for their short antennae. Few species in North America are of economic consequence, so it is easy to ignore them, but you would be missing a subtle beauty if you passed them by.

Take the “cream grasshopper,” Cibolacris parviceps, for example. They appear to be little (20-32 mm) flying bits of granite. Ok, when they are young, without fully-developed wings, they resemble hopping bits of stone. This species ranges throughout the southwest, occupying such desolate habitats as dry desert washes (arroyos), overgrazed rangeland, and, in some parts of Tucson anyway, unpaved parking lots. Initially, I thought this insect was one of the colorful band-winged grasshoppers in the subfamily Oedipodinae, but I was mistaken. So, apparently, were early taxonomists who did classify the genus there. Today, most orthopterists (grasshopper experts) put Cibolacris in the subfamily Gomphocerinae, known as “slant-faced grasshoppers.” The rationale for that escapes me.

A true slant-faced grasshopper is Psoloessa texana. This diminutive (16-22 mm) creature is very cryptic among plant debris, owing to the complex patterns of lines, diamonds, and spots on its body.

The most common of our local grasshoppers by far is the Pallid-winged grasshopper, Trimerotropis pallidipennis. It is abundant in vacant lots, even on city streets where they may bask in the morning. They are true band-winged grasshoppers, the pale hindwing, used in flying, marked with a broad black band. These wings are concealed, folded accordion-like, beneath the narrow, mottled forewings when the insect settles, rendering it nearly invisible. That is quite a vanishing act for a sizable (31-42 mm) insect. This wide-ranging species occurs from western Canada to Chile.

While the pallid-winged grasshopper can fly very far, very well, most winged grasshoppers fly very short distances before settling again. This is true for the Aztec Range Grasshopper, Lactista aztecus, also out and about now in Tucson. This small (19-25 mm) insect has yellow hindwings interrupted by a black band. The single bar across the forewing (matched by a bar on the femur of the hind leg) makes it easy to identify. It ranges from Arizona to Texas, south into Mexico.

Wherever you live, there should be grasshoppers. Take a closer look at them and see if you, too, aren’t delighted by their earthtone colors and captivating personalities as you play hide-and-seek with each other. Share your stories and discoveries here, and/or post your images over at Bug Guide where others can enjoy them as well.