Seed

Now why would Dave blip a seed! – more about that later.

Yet another early session and yet another successful session too, with lots of material to choose from.

I spent a lot of time around the ‘bee tree’, hoping for a blue carpenter bee opportunity. I was also hoping to see the giant wasp that I spotted yesterday, neither materialized. But, when you stand still long enough, your back hurts things start to happen.

The gorgeous, tiny kingfisher flew past a few times. I am hoping to get a chance of a shot one day. The tree shrews, looking very much like squizzers, came out to play. They are extremely shy and so far I have only managed distant shots, one day I hope for better.

I started to notice more of my surroundings. Right in front of me was a large trumpet bloom hanging down. I don’t recall seeing it before, but it must have been there. At about a foot long, how did I miss it. Also found several flycatcher type blooms. I have to figure out the best settings and the best way to photograph them before I put them up. Today’s attempts were just not right.

After an hour of stalking, I decided to give my back a break and walk the rest of the route. I snapped a few bits and pieces, a few more shots of the mantis and then I saw this interesting leaf. I took a second look because of its symmetry, which usually means a moth. But, on closer examination, it was a seed, which would of course have symmetry.

I looked a bit closer through the lens and it did appear to have eyes, so I set up the monopod and started shooting. But then I thought, ‘Am I about to fire off twenty shots of a seed head’. So I decided to give it a poke – nothing, so I flipped it over, and there were six legs, so it WAS a moth after all, but now an ex-moth. I went to flip it back again, because even though it was dead, it was still worth collecting the images. As I touched it for the second time, it burst into life and flew off.

So which do you think makes me feel more stupid;

A - shooting 20 shots of a seed, thinking it was a moth.

B – shooting 20 shots of a dead moth, thinking how fortunate you are that it keeps still.

C – poking the moth to test it and losing the photographic opportunity.

From copious personal experience, ‘A’ is bad enough, ‘B’ is worse, but ‘C’ makes steam come out of your ears.

Fortunately I did get three shots before I blew it, still feel incredibly stupid though.

Update:

Identification - Nolidae, Chloephorinae - nolid moth.

The reason that I could not see any antennae, is that they are the other end! Now I reeeaaaally feel stupid :)

Update 2:

Identification - Carea simplicilinea.

A very rare moth, only ever seen in Papua New Guinea. This one must be on its holidays, 3,200Km from home! This is a most exciting find. Not feeling so stupid now :)

Update 3:

Identification - Diehlea tumida, Nolid moth.

Visibly an identical moth to Carea simplicilinea, but a different species. Not as rare as I thought. Found with generous help from the staff at 'Moths of Papua', thanks Rob :)

Ah well, pfft!

Dave