I don’t know what triggered it, but this weekend’s migraine ended up bad enough to require shots of Toradol and Benadryl, and a couple of pills for nausea. Not that it has anything to do with Parview, but does explain why I accomplished nothing (especially considering the heat index got up to 108).

Friday after work, I was hot and tired, so I didn’t do much. My Black Swallowtail caterpillars are getting bigger, though, and it looks like I’ll have enough to feed them until they’re ready to be flutter-guys.

The phlox actually got to bloom, no thanks to Charlotte. I wouldn’t call it “tall” phlox, exactly, but at least it has flowers!

I was strolling around on Friday, looking at flowers, and came across these mutant coneflowers. Although they look kind of cool, I had to get rid of them because this plant had aster yellows, which is contagious (spread by plant hoppers), and the blooms are much too popular with the local wildlife to let them be destroyed by a disease. I don’t think I got the roots because the Honeysuckle Horseshoe is such a goddamned tangle of growth, but hopefully the root will die without any leaves to collect sunlight. Otherwise, I’ll have to pull it next year.

Now for the reason I ended up with a migraine…I was up much too late on Friday night, but I did get something for my pain. I already typed it all out in an email to R, so I’ll copypasta:

The Imperial Moth is one of the big silkmoths (same family as the pale green Luna Moth), and of course, I’ve seen pictures of them since I had a book about insects when I was just a little kid, but had never seen one in real life. Last night, I was up WAY later than usual because Miff fell asleep all curled up on my legs when I was watching Netflix, and he was too cute to roust from his comfortable slumber. When he finally moved, I got up and took a shower, then went outside to make sure the garage and cars were locked. This huge thing flew under the patio roof, and I knew it was some kind of moth, but figured it was one of the big hawkmoths I see fairly often. Once it landed, I knew it wasn’t a hawkmoth, it was a silkmoth, and not only that, but one I’d never seen before except in pictures–an Imperial!

Problem: it was dark, and the outdoor lights are hardly sufficient for a good photo, and on top of that, he’d landed way up by the roof. This is a 1948 ranch house, so it’s not like the roof is high, but I wanted a good shot. Normally, I leave wildlife alone; my insect collection is of photographs, not corpses, and once I have a picture, that’s all I want and the creature is free to go. This time, though, I did interfere with his business because I had to catch him for a daytime shot in good light. I got the pool skimmer net I use to clean leaves out of the pond, and with that, I could just reach. I caught him and put him into a plastic container with a tissue for him to hold (most insects and crustaceans have a thigmotactic response, which basically boils down to their being stressed by slippery surfaces that don’t allow them anything to grip). Since I was wearing a nightdress and had my hair in a pink towel, I’m glad it was late and we’re the last house on a quiet, dead end street because I’ll bet I was some sight out there in the middle of the night with my pool skimmer! Anyway, he was frightened and fluttery, so I put the container right beside an air conditioning vent to cool him down (chilly insects move slowly) so he wouldn’t beat up his beautiful wings. These moths don’t eat–their mouthparts are vestigial only–so their sole purpose as adults is to find a mate and reproduce. They live a few weeks at most. Anyway, I kept him overnight, and about an hour ago, I figured it was a good balance between “I need daylight” and “he flies at night, and won’t move if the sun is up”, so I took him outside and did his photo shoot, then stuck the piece of bark I’d coaxed him onto in a crack on the sweetgum tree. He should be safe there from hungry birds and raccoons, and since sweetgum is one of their host plants (Luna uses it, too), he may find a female close by… The girls are a bit bigger, and often show more yellow. They’re variable, though, and I did at first think this was a girl, but then I looked at his antennae…feathery, with lots of pheromone receptors to help him find lovely ladies.

…and here is the beautiful creature in question, next to my hand for scale.

By himself.

On the tree. He left some time on Saturday night.

I know where bees sleep!

I’m adding this post-weekend (taken Monday night) because it looks cool even if the Spicebush Swallowtail was too fluttery to let me get a good shot. Also, all of my Black Swallowtail cats are gone, but they were so big that I think they more likely wandered off to pupate than got eaten by something (at least I hope so). No Pipevine Swallowtails so far this year, and no Spicebush cats. I had two Monarch cats, but can no longer find them, and the milkweed looks very bad. Anyway, here’s a pretty Spicebush boy amongst some bright flowers.