{"id":10540,"date":"2012-04-27T09:27:56","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=10540"},"modified":"2012-04-27T09:27:56","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:27:56","slug":"of-butterflies-and-moths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=10540","title":{"rendered":"Of Butterflies and Moths"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Question Mark Butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

While roaming woodlands and wetlands in search of hard-shelled reptiles, the Turtle Journal Team often encounters other interesting critters along the way.\u00c2\u00a0 Yesterday offered us a glorious peek at a couple of\u00c2\u00a0intriguing moth and butterfly specimens that we’d like to share with our friends and colleagues.\u00c2\u00a0 In the pine-oak woodlands near the Great Blue Heron rookery, we nearly stumbled\u00c2\u00a0over this magnificent butterfly, which we later identified as a question mark.<\/p>\n

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Question Mark Butterfly\u00c2\u00a0in Marion, MA<\/strong><\/em>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

No, not a questionable identification.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, definitely a question mark!\u00c2\u00a0 I feel as though I’ve fallen through the rabbit hole and find myself in an old\u00c2\u00a0Abbott and Costello skit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abbott:\u00c2\u00a0 “A question mark butterfly.”<\/p>\n

Costello:\u00c2\u00a0 “I don’t know, you tell me the name of the butterfly.”<\/p>\n

Abbott:\u00c2\u00a0 “Question mark.”<\/p>\n

Costello:\u00c2\u00a0 “Yes.\u00c2\u00a0 What is it?”<\/p>\n

Abbott:\u00c2\u00a0 “Question mark.”<\/p>\n

Costello:\u00c2\u00a0 “Okay.\u00c2\u00a0 I give up.\u00c2\u00a0 You tell me.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s it’s name?”<\/p>\n

Abbott:\u00c2\u00a0 ‘Question mark.”<\/p>\n

And so it goes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Giant Leopard Moth\u00c2\u00a0(Hypercompe scribonia) Caterpillar<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On the path to the abandoned Goldwitz Bog also in Marion, Turtle Journal discovered a very large caterpiller, overwhelmingly black with orange-reddish stripes visible as\u00c2\u00a0it coiled into a ball when disturbed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar in Marion, MA<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ignoring\u00c2\u00a0those bright warning colors, we picked up this interesting specimen to examine it closely and to get a sense of its relative size compared to other caterpillars.\u00c2\u00a0 Luckily for us, this species is not poisonous.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar — Bottom Up<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We also like to document the undercarriage of specimens for ease of\u00c2\u00a0subsequent identification.\u00c2\u00a0 Research confirmed that this critter is the caterpillar of\u00c2\u00a0a giant leopard moth.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar near Abandoned Bog<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We watched as the moth zigzagged through needles and leaves, occasionally burrowing under the ground cover for a peaceful interlude.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Giant Leopard Moth (from insectlove.tumblr.com)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Back at Turtle Journal headquarters, we searched the internet to find a photograph of the mature giant leopard moth.\u00c2\u00a0 We found this picture on insectlove.tumblr.com<\/a>, but we look forward to encountering a live specimen to capture on film.\u00c2\u00a0 The giant leopard moth has a wingspan of three inches!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question Mark Butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) While roaming woodlands and wetlands in search of hard-shelled reptiles, the Turtle Journal Team often encounters other interesting critters along the way.\u00c2\u00a0 Yesterday offered us a glorious peek at a couple of\u00c2\u00a0intriguing moth and butterfly specimens that we’d like to share with our friends and colleagues.\u00c2\u00a0 In the pine-oak woodlands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[402,826],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10540"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10566,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10540\/revisions\/10566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}