I was quite confused when I saw Queen butterfly wings caught in the foliage of the Gregg’s Mistflower as I walked by.

I stopped to look and saw that the butterfly wasn’t just haphazardly hung up, it was in the grip of a large Praying Mantis the exact color of the leaves. I had stumbled upon the predator mid-meal. Here is a video short.

The Carolina Mantis was completely unconcerned how close I was with my phone. If I had passed by a minute later, I would have only seen the butterfly wings on the ground, and not the camouflaged mantis.

This fall is giving us the opportunity to observe some rather large insects.

My youngest told me there was a large bug in the bathroom, so I went to look. It was indeed a large bug, a bark scorpion, but it had been taken care of by our friendly neighborhood house spider. I have no idea how the scorpion became entangled in the web an inch off the floor, but the spider definitely had the advantage.

The spider is certainly eating well, and we find it revisiting different parts of the scorpion as well as taking breaks from feeding. I’m going to leave the scorpion until there is nothing left, then clean up the web and let the spider rebuild. Go spider go.

I’ve started a new campaign to keep the moth community sparkling clean: Moth Balls! Toss the ball into the dryer and it releases hundreds of detail oriented nocturnal lepidopteran insects to scour clothing. Ew, no, I’m kidding, April Fools. Gah, the thought (shudder).

I did find moths in my dryer at the dawn of Spring. They were safely transported outside. It was weird finding them there, though. We’ve lived here for seven years and I’ve never before found flying insects in the dryer. I wonder if I have a crack or breakage somewhere.