Adventures of DP & CB: Butterflies and Moths

Hi all, so I gather nobody believed my story about stumbling through that overgrown area of the city and finding all those animals roaming about. So I decided to just tell this story without any embellishments. It might get a little boring but I figure you all can handle the truth. The following is my account of that fateful day in May 2008. The day the insects destroyed London.

I'm writing to you from what is left of my garden here at Kew Palace. Luckily the palace itself is still standing. Notice the tree on the right, after all these years, it has finally died.

Huge grasshoppers had attacked it in the early morning hours. I know what you are thinking grasshoppers eat grass. I know that already but trust me they were eating the trees. I could hear the grinding of their mandibles and could see them chewing through branches when the moonlight broke through the clouds. I can't really describe the horror I felt when I saw what was attacking my tree. Sorry, I couldn't take any pictures of the creatures actually eating the tree, it was just too dark and I was afraid. I admit it, I was afraid of insects. You'll see why after you see the pictures that I was able to get.

As soon as the flash went off, the grasshoppers and their evil skeleton riders attacked.

I had to run for my life as the evil minions of the Grasshopper Queen chased me. As I was running I saw in the distance a beautiful maiden hugging a tree that had already suffered the same fate as my tree at the palace.

As I approached the beautiful maiden, she ran away towards another tree and to my horror she started eating that one as well. Apparently I had found the Grasshopper Queen.

I couldn't believe my eyes. That's when I knew this must be a dream. Also I realized that the grasshoppers were just eating the trees and not the people. And those skeletons riding the grasshoppers just kept going in circles. So I figured, I should go find that grasshopper queen, she was kind a cute. Off I went, somehow I had lost sight of the queen. After walking for miles I decided to ask this couple if they had seen her when all of a sudden a giant caterpillar plopped down in front of them and promptly ate them.

As you can see they didn't have a chance, they barely even had time to react. That's when I realized I was in big trouble here and London would really be consumed by this evil insect horde. So at this point you are probably all expecting me to turn into a hero, an entomologist in shining armor, to come save the day.

Well as you can see I had the armor. I even had a set of armor for a mini me. And of course I am an entomologist. But sadly, some entomologists are not meant to be heroes especially when fighting off insect hordes. They can only do so much before becoming too distracted by trying to identify the species that are chewing on them. I was however able to take a few pictures before I was completely devoured.

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Attacus atlas, Atlas Moth, Saturniidae, Malaysia

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Heliconius sp., Nymphalidae, South America

Greta oto, Glasswing, Nymphalidae, Costa Rica

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Parthenos sylvia, Clipper, Nymphalidae, Southeast Asia

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Saturnia pyri, Greater Peacock Silk Moth, Saturniidae, Europe

Heliconius sp., Nymphalidae, South America

As you can tell from this post I didn't perish along with the rest of London. You can't blog from the afterlife can you?

So how was that for an introduction to a bunch of butterfly and moth pics. You probably thought that it would simply be a scientific lesson about Lepidoptera.

I would like to thank my lovely wife Cheryl for playing the part of the Grasshopper Queen. Those pictures were taken at Kew Gardens back in April and that really was Kew Palace. I would also like to mention that no insects or plants were harmed during filming although I can't really explain why Cheryl was eating that tree.

The grasshopper with the skeleton rider was taken at the British Museum. The suits of armor picture was taken at the Tower of London and the info about the armor below was found at Big Big Planet.

The armour on the left is 6 ft 9 in tall and first listed in the inventory in 1660 as armour for John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, but is now believed to have been a gift from the Duke of Brunswick (North German) to Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I. The armour on the right is 37.5 in tall and is probably a trial piece for a lost armour of Charles I, but at earlier times were thought to have been either the armour of one of the murdered princes (Richard, Duke of York) or Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf of Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I.

All of the butterfly and moth pictures from above (including the hungry caterpillar entrance) were taken at the London Zoo. The pictures below were taken at the Natural History Museum.