Finally trapped this guy. He’s been having a great time munching on the garden and the shoots of newly grafted seedling stone fruit as well as some other things for the past few weeks. Luckily got him before he did too much damage. He nearly pruned off some very small pluot grafts in pots but it looks like I have some surviving buds that are starting to push new growth again so hopefully the fully recover.
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Wow! We’ve been catching them on the game-cam’s for about 4 years, but have never seen one. I’ve missed more than one video recording thinking I was recording when I wasn’t.
There are probably several for every one you see.
I often see 3 or more at once in our yard 
The raptors, coyotes, and bobcats are sleeping on the job.
What did you use for bait? I have terrible luck catching rabbits in my box trap. THey have so many food choices in the wild that my attempts with carrots, apples. lettuce, etc almost never lures them in. Silly me- I just let 2 babies I found in the nest grow up, so now I’d like to catch and remove them (nevermind why I didn’t do so when I had the chance and they were in their nest). But not sure what to use for bait???
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Yes, probably so. I know there was a doe that had kits in our yard. I haven’t seen the others yet but will be leaving the trap out.
My luck hasn’t been great either. Last year I caught one with apples. I tried apples and carrots this year. He did seem to like them and ate the “chum” around the trap but I couldn’t catch him. At one point, I watched him go in and out of the trap without setting it off at least 3 times. The funny thing is that I finally caught him with no bait. I had the trap set near some bricks against a fence. He ignored the trap and slipped through some cracks to go in the space between the fence and the bricks. I was lucky to see him so I blocked off the other access point and put another trap at the entrance. I finally got him with the non-baited trap when he tried to come back out.
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How funny! Glad to know I’m not the only one who has a hard time catching them. I’ve been watching some of those survival shows and they catch them all the time with wire loops/ snare but I suspect there is some tv funny business going on there. ha. But they use the method you did in terms of just limiting the rabbits pathway and funneling him to one area and then catching him when he goes through there. Thanks for the info.
Last summer I posted a photo of a giant silkworm (Cecropia) caterpillar that was on my Apple tree and cocooned there.
Fast forward to now:
And let me say… I have large hands!!!
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That happened to me with Bigfoot last year
Marsupials are mammals. There are three major subgroups of mammals: monotremes (the egg layers, e.g. platypus and echidna), marsupials (kangaroos, possums, but also many others), and eutherian or placental mammals (including most of the familiar northern hemisphere mammals). Agree with all the rest, though!
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Mothra!
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That is just incredible. Not just the giant, beautiful moth (that too though!) but the fact that you saw the caterpillar, the cocoon, and then moth and got them all on camera…just makes it a great little documentary in 3 photos. Sooo neat! What are the odds that you got to photograph the moth before it left? I bet it was gone within hours. Well done.
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Actually there is more to the story. This caterpillar eats like crazy to store energy for the very long metamorphosis. Then after becoming a moth it has no digestive system. The moth’s sole purpose is to find a mate and reproduce laying eggs for the next cycle. So… today… there were two of them… doing the Wilson Pickett. Now I am amazed! I planted potatoes one year out of the blue and I don’t even know of any neighbors that grow potatoes but that didn’t stop the potato bugs from showing up right on time. I’ve never seen one of these moths before but wouldn’t you know it…a second one shows up just in time to mate with this one.
So… what about this life cycle… eat… sleep… mate… lay eggs… starve to death…
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This story just gets better and better and more amazing. So cool. This is why nature documentaries are far and away my favorite thing to watch on tv. Life is simply amazing in any form.
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They declare to all that see the majesty of their Creator.
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Awesome photos! Moths have amazing olfactory systems. Males can detect a single pheromone molecule from up to 30 miles away (in some species) and navigate to the source (a female releasing pheremones). Here is a nice paper on receptor sensitivity. .
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And I was worried that there were no other moths around… lol. She is going to lay eggs all over my apple trees and those little buggers can eat for an Olympic team…
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Don’t assume there is only one rabbit!
funny thing is we have those same moths here in n Maine! they sure get around.
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Surely the moth detects the molecule, by contact, that came from 30 miles away where there are many such molecules.
If the one molecule is 30 miles away, the moth has no way of interacting with it.
Another way of stating it, is that a moth can detect a single molecule of pheromone, which may have traveled more than 30 miles from its source.
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