cecropia moths, millipedes and other wonders
TIME FOR A LITTLE NON-PLANT MOMENT, captured in a quick jumble of other-than-botanical snapshots from around the garden lately. There are moths and millipedes of size XL proportion; baby birds everywhere–the stuff you get to see if, and only if, you keep your eyes, and ears, open and don’t move too fast on to that next garden chore.
Click on the first thumbnail to start the show, then toggle from slide to slide using the arrows on your keyboard or the ones beside each caption.
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- I’m noticing big things everywhere I look this growing season, including the moth of all moths, Hyalophora cecropia. Its wingspan was more than 5 inches. No surprise that it likes my place, I suppose, since the foliage of apples, cherries, sugar maples, oaks, elderberries and (yum!) lilacs are on the menu, and among its dietary favorites.
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- We’re growing size XL millipedes here, too, and in great profusion. Narceus americanus, sometimes called the worm millipede, does a similar job as its common namesake, digesting leaf litter and such debris…meaning they are detritovores (eating detritus). Just think of him as nature’s composter. They get to around 6 inches long, and are arthropods — they have a hard exoskeleton, segmented body and many pairs of legs, like a scorpion or a lobster.
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- Now this more familiar guy eats everything: blueberries and other fruit, peas right from their pods, corn, every manner of seeds (both those you planted and those in the birdfeeder). And when they’re not eating, they’re tunneling: under my tomatoes, garlic, onions, everywhere. I have a bumper crop of extra-frisky Tamias striatus this year, if not many peas and blueberries. Did you know that when they dig tunnels they fill their pouches with the excavated soil, and move it, to help conceal their mischief. And I thought the pouches were just for extra helpings of dinner.
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- Various birds are happy to help out with the devouring of succulent crops here, too, including this very Buddhist bluejay. When he’s not meditating, he’s shouting a lot — and not eating other birds’ eggs, as Cyanocitta cristata is commonly accused of. A large-scale study found just 1 percent of bluejays had the remains of bird eggs in their stomachs.
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- I have never seen so many nests as this season, and often placed in far-too-easy-to-find spots, making me wonder how any young survive.
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- There are robins hatching everywhere; a second round at the moment. Robins, Turdus migratorius, can produce up to three sets of young a season, a necessity since the odds for survival are so poor: On average, says Cornell Lab of Ornithology, only 40 percent of robin nests successfully produce young and just 25 percent of those fledged young survive to November.
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- No discussion of the creatures here would be complete without a you-know-what. This male green frog, Rana clamitans, insists that he’s an annual, preferring to spend most of his days in a flowerpot at poolside (when he isn’t in the water fighting for the dominant role against other would-be frog kings).
Useful Related Links:
- More about Cecropia moths
- More about Millipedes and other arthropods
- More about American robins
- More about blue jays
Thanks for sharing. Love that moth! The millipede not so much. And of course you have to have a frog!
Love all your snapshots Margaret, thks so much, you help me so much in my garden.
Any more of Jack?
In my neck of the woods (northwest coast of Canada) starlings are increasingly displacing robins making it even more difficult for the lovely harbingers of spring/summer to survive.
The photos of the nests and newborns touched my heart, and I want to say “Thrive, little one, thrive!”
Jan
Fantastic post. Really enjoyed the little show. Impressed by the moth. Impressed by the millipede too but think I might be disconcerted if I came across many. Perphaps I’d get used to them though?
Lucy
When I’m in the garden I think of you with all your creatures. We came across a rattle snake last week. I must say the critters of the lizard, frog and snake kind unnerve me and take some of the peace of gardening. I must say that the moth is, to me, an amazing evidence of the divine.
I do think I prefer the common name Robin to Turdus migratorius. :)
Thanks for the slideshow. Enjoyed it !
Loved your slide show. Always partial to frogs. I have bottle brid houses around me house which are always nested by Sparrows. They even chase the Blue Birds away. They are now on their 3rd clutch ! Recently added Wren houses & always their noisy antics. I shall watch for the Cecropia Moth . . . beautiful !
I had a beautiful swallowtail on an allium yesterday. the yellow against the purple was really striking but no camera so I had to just take it in. It doesn’t seem like we have as many butterflies and moths as when I was a kid…of course, I’m about 2000 miles from where I grew up but there aren’t that many around here. I am shameless in my courting of hummingbirds & bees and have lots in my yard. I would think that the butterflies & moths would like more of the same but I will have to research that and see what I can do to help them out
I didn’t realize that robins reused their nests, but apparently they do. We had a family with three fledglings in the fig tree by the kitchen window in early spring, and now mom and pop are back, apparently caring for more eggs. Smart choice, the fig tree — easy source of food.
Enjoyed this post very much. Thanks, Margaret. What I’m noticing in Georgia seems to be a resurgence of lightning bugs. An evening delight to see them blinking quietly in the garden and adjoining woods.
Thanks for the lovely photos. They are an inspiration!
Love your nature slideshow! How come other birds seem to be afraid of the jays? Also, I was checking out your hydrandeas and wonder if you have a tip for why one of my many many H. plants is always beautifully green but never blooms-the one right next to it does.
Welcome, Pam. They are pretty raucous birds, loud and social, and are much bigger than many of our other common feeder birds/songbirds, so I suppose they are something to be reckoned with for those reasons. They do eat the occasional egg but apparently are not the terrible plunderers we thought after all.
As for the Hydrangea, that’s curious. What prevents hydrangeas or other flowering things from blooming is usually too much shade, too much Nitrogen fertilizer (makes leaves at the expense of blooms) or improper pruning. What is different about the way this one is being handled — if anything?
I always love the slide shows; the baby robins look SO frail!
I wonder if you are having more problems with earwigs, and what you are doing
to discourage them??
thanks
dear Margaret, So magical to see your moth, as I had a first visit on July 21st, 2009 on the glass front door of my cottage in Elizaville, NY. It was a Cecropia also, later found out also known as a Robin Moth. The name has such personal resonance for me and my family. And, too, last spring, for the first time since living in the Hudson Valley, I captured photos of a ‘Robin’s’ nest…3 baby blue eggs, and a very obliging mother. It made my year. Want you to know, finding your book, at the perfect moment in my life, when I so longed to read word’s expressed exactly like yours, helped me down the path of my own creative destiny. And so many of the beauties in nature that I have been blessed enough to discover these last few years, gave me that blissful jolt of visceral connection with my senses, it all adds to my song of life…Hurray! I really do think you are one of the ‘sparkly’ people, and your garden looks to be like paradise. best, Karen Leslie
Welcome, Karen. I am so touched by your kind comment, and the fact that we are both, not so far away, seeing the same magical things this spring and summer. Nice — or as you say, hurray!
I love moths…and lightening bugs…and lady birds…and praying mantis. When I was a little girl, I’d capture the poor creatures in a jam jar and set them on my nightstand to watch them as I fell asleep. Then, in the morning, I’d release them back into the wild. Flying flowers I used to call them.
Me, too, Smallpeace, as you can tell. I love your coining the phrase “flying flowers.” Beautiful!
Watching 15 Swallowtail Butterfly larvae feed on my fennel. Slowly they are disappearing and looked under the fennel to discover Mr. Green Frog waiting for them to be in reaching distance. Moved Mr. Frog and he was back in two days. Only 2 caterpillars left. Dog eat dog food world. L
I’m with Tammy on preferring the name “Robin” to that Latin insult! No wonder they can be bad-tempered. It’s the catbirds that get us, though–one carries on ad nauseam when our two rescue cats are outside. “Cat! CAT!! Caaaaat!!!”
We have a bounty of green frogs in our small pond this year. I’m now seeing them setting out for other ponds, I think. I’ve seen three mid-sized frogs far away from the pond. Every frog wants to be king, I guess. I also think we may have a bullfrog lurking–so far I’ve only seen the top of its head, but it looks much bigger than any other frog in residence. As soon as it spots me, it disappears under water.