The PhotoHunt theme this week is “Upside Down”

I am cheating this week, and combining my PhotoHunt post with my (belated) Nature Notes post. Well, how could I resist when I finally solved a mystery that’s been “bugging” me (you’ll excuse the expression) for several months?

Back in late May, this appeared in my yard:

Isn’t it weird and cool? It’s an Oleander Moth. But I didn’t know that at the time. It looks and flies like a wasp, but it doesn’t look like any wasp I’d ever seen. And I was wondering why it was hanging around this plant. Notice how it winds up upside down under the leaf.

I looked around the yard a bit when I got home from work the other evening, and this scene caught my eye:

Oleander Caterpillar

I’d never seen this caterpillar in my yard before. It’s so cool-looking! Look at those long tufts of hair! What sort of exotic butterfly would it become? But, there are clusters of them! They’re eating this ornamental plant! And look! They’re upside down! What do I do?

As it turns out, they are Oleander Caterpillars, and they are the only critters who eat oleander, which is poisonous to everyone else. And yes, they will probably eat the leaves of this plant down to the stems, but everything I’ve read indicates that it will probably come back, perhaps better than ever. Some people even plant oleander to attract these guys for the cool moths they become. Which was upside down because it was laying eggs on the tender undersides of the leaves.

So, I’ve decided to leave them be. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

Michelle at Rambling Woods is hosting Nature Notes, a weekly meme dedicated to challenging us to take a moment out of our hectic lives and notice the seasonal changes – large and small – taking place in nature all around each of us, in our own little corners of the world. Please visit Michelle and all the other participants, and maybe take some of your own Nature Notes!