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.

Hypolimnas bolina, The Great Egg Fly, Nymphalidae, Malaysia

Morpho peleides, Common Blue Morpho, Nymphalidae, Central and South America

Attacus atlas, Atlas Moth, Saturniidae, Malaysia

Attacus atlas, Atlas Moth, Saturniidae, Malaysia

Anthocharis sp., Orangetip, Pieridae

Parthenos sylvia, Clipper, Nymphalidae, Southeast Asia

Graphium agamemnon, Green Jay, Papilionidae, Philippines

Nymphalidae

I'll update this post with the full names of the ones I missed when I get them figured out.

Jungle London

Western Lowland Gorilla

I was walking near Camden Town in a somewhat overgrown section of the city when I heard a strange noise. I crept through the bushes and came across what appeared to be two people in gorilla suits sitting in a yard. That seemed a little odd but it's London so you kind of just expect it and move on. As I was creeping back out of the bushes I started to hear other odd noises. (If you click on the links beneath the pictures they will take you to a website that has info about each, as well as having some more pictures. Some are even better than mine).

Malayan Tapir

At this point I'm thinking what a cool neighborhood. This had to be one of the largest dogs I've ever seen (for some reason couldn't find my glasses). There was something a little different about it but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He did seem to be enjoying his swim so I figured I had time to explore the area further while he was occupied.

Asian Lion

Admittedly I hadn't had my coffee yet this morning but after seeing these two house cats I began to wake up a little. Where was I, certainly not in central London. I couldn't help but think of Slam (my cat) who I miss terribly. He would often lay about during the day, roaring ever so often when he was hungry.

He's (Slam) staying with my brother Joe and his wife Debi and of course the 3 monster children. Slam's not so happy with the monster children (they are really noisy) and he think's Joe is an ogre (a nice ogre, although he kind of looks like a frog in the picture above). Slam however, absolutely loves Debi so he figures he can hang in there until I get back. I think he might actually love hanging out in this jungle. Slam is a world champion bird catcher or he would be if he ever was let out of the house. Let me tell you, this area has a lot of birds.

Superb Starling

Von der Decken's Hornbill

Black-footed Penguin, Rock hopper Penguin, Grey Heron, and the Moorhen. The grey heron had just flown in when I approached. It then proceeded to eat several fish that were laying on the bank.

Scarlet-crested Sunbird

As I was looking at all the birds I began to notice that some seemed to be inside cages. I also began to wonder if some of these birds might not be native to England. I really needed to find some coffee and think about this.

Toco Toucan

Spectacled Owl

While wondering around I found many other animals that seemed like they belonged in a zoo. This certainly seemed like a great place for one. Here are a couple of shots for those of you in DC that miss the giraffes at the National Zoo.

Reticulated Giraffe

Below are some shots of one my favourite animals that I saw running around the neighborhood. First you have to try to spot him in the pictures below. In the second picture there is a three-toed sloth at the bottom (no really, I didn't make that part up). You will have to click on the pics in order to play along.

Hopefully you've seen the Pygmy Marmoset in both of the pictures. This little guy decided to check out the crowd of people that had gathered to watch him. Kind of made you wonder who was doing the watching here, was this place just a clever plan devised to attract humans in order for the marmosets to have something to study.

Pygmy Marmoset

This was a great building to visit. All the animals were out and showing off. Here are a few more pictures to click on. If you are tired of animals already you are in the wrong place. Scroll down anyway just so you can say you looked at them all.

Golden-headed Lion Tamarin

Red Titi Monkey

Meerkat

Oriental Small-clawed Otter

Red River Hog

Bearded Pig

Okay, that's enough for now. I figured out (after the coffee) that I had somehow stumbled upon the London Zoo. There was a whole lot more to see than what is shown here as it's one of the must see places in London (according to me and also if you like animals). Be prepared to spend the whole day and expect huge crowds of people. Oh and get there early because the lines to get in can be huge. Also tickets prices are steep 17.50 GBP ($35), but can be halved if you can find offers from the train stations. Luckily the group of three in front of me needed a fourth to make the half price tickets worthwhile.

I just had to include these pictures. I think these are the beetles that had to clean up after the vegetarian dinosaurs that used to roam the earth a long time ago.

The next post will be about butterflies and moths since the London Zoo and the Natural History Museum both have Butterfly houses in operation this year.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and King Lear

Sunday, I decided to check out the Globe Theatre.

The theatre is located next to the Tate Modern along the river. The theatre is a faithful reconstruction of the open air playhouse in which Shakespeare worked and wrote many of his greatest plays. I took that description from their website so follow the link for more fun facts. The theatre is basically shaped like an O with a big hole in the roof. Most of the seated areas are covered and dry but they sell standing room tickets as well which aren't covered. First of all, if you get the chance, buy the standing tickets for 5 pounds and stand right next to the stage. It almost makes you become part of the play. It's also the place where you might be able to hear all the dialogue.

Fortunately in 1599 there were no airplanes and helicopters flying over to disturb the performance. Unfortunately in 2008, there are a lot of them. And of course there is the rain. As I mentioned in the last post, the rain didn't like having the day off on Saturday, so it's rained every day since. The rain during the performance caused a lot of people to put their ponchos on or open umbrellas so they could stay dry. The ponchos were fine, but the umbrellas caused mass grumbling from the crowd and mass censorship from the staff, which kind of made you miss a lot of the action and dialogue.

The play of course was King Lear. Now just in case you don't know the story here is my condensed version. Those of you in school that might be tested on this at a future date should be warned that I have not read the play and there were an awful lot of planes flying over so I might have missed a bit. So here goes, King Lear was a bit of a loon that had three daughters. Hmmm, reminds me of a brother of mine. Well, the old king was a bit tired one day and decided that he would divide his land into three and give each daughter one third. The only condition was that each daughter had to make up something nice to say about him. Seems easy enough, but of course one daughter, the youngest and the kings' favourite (although not terribly bright) decided not to play a long. You would think that she could just play a long a little to humour the nutty king, get the land, and live happily ever after. Alas no, she is exiled to France of all places. To make a long story much much shorter, the two daughters that got the land were not very nice to daddy. Daddy went more insane, the Duke of Gloucester got his eyes ripped out (that was cool, but a bit messy), war with France and the other daughter, and death. I might have skipped over a bit but to say the least it wasn't the happiest of endings. Joe (brother), if you are reading this, don't do it, you've seen what can happen. Give all of your possessions to me. I'm sure I can come up with at least one nice thing to say about you.

I really enjoyed the play. The acting was really good. The rain and the planes kind of sucked but what can you do. I'll definitely be back, A Midsummer Night's Dream is opening on the 10th of May. I bet you can't wait for the recap of that one.

I included the cast list just in case any of these guys become famous so I could say I saw them way back when they played at the Globe.

Cast
Ben Bishop Burgundy
Sally Bretton Goneril
Kellie Bright Regan
David Calder Lear
Paul Copley Kent
Kurt Egyiwan Curan
Trystan Gravelle Edgar
Peter Hamilton Dyer Cornwall
Daniel Hawksford Edmond
Fraser James Albany
Danny Lee Wynter Fool
Paul Lloyd Old Man / Doctor
Kevork Malikyan Knight
Jodie McNee Cordelia
Joseph Mydell Gloucester
Ashley Rolfe Oswald
Beru Tessema France

Pamela Hay Mna Siubhail, a ballad singer
Arngeir Hauksson, Claire McIntyre, Nicholas Perry, Corrina Silvester Musicians

This is a water fountain. Place your cup under the pitcher for it to be filled.

This statue is nowhere near the Globe but I thought it was cool. It's actually outside of the Southwark Cathedral near London Bridge and Borough Market but I forgot to put it in that post.

Finally A Warm Sunny Saturday

Saturday (26 April 2008) was the warmest day (so far) of the year in London. Hopefully, there are a few more to come but I'm not holding my breath. It reached 22 C (71 F) here without rain. I was caught by surprise and didn't really have a plan for a sunny day. I was actually going to go into work and then to a dinner party in the evening. But I couldn't pass up a day outside in sunny old England, it really doesn't happen that often. So I decided to head over to the Borough Market on the South Bank to have brunch. Cheryl found this place last November while she was exploring London and clued me in on what a great place it is and some of what it has to offer.

Of course everyone else in London had the same idea. Winter here (at least in 2007) was only slightly colder than summer and until Saturday I wasn't actually sure what season it was. After living in Hawaii you would think I would be used to no seasons and a lot of rain but at least it was always warm.

Borough Market is the oldest Market space in London. It's been at it's current site for over 250 years. The market itself has been in existence since the Romans built the first London Bridge in 55AD. Just as a side note I read up on the old London Bridge that is now in Lake Havasu, Arizona. It has become the 2nd largest attraction in Arizona after the Grand Canyon. Check out the Wikipedia page if you want more info.

The market consists of numerous vendors selling everything associated with food that one can think of. My favorite stall is Utobeer. This is where you can buy beer by the bottle from all over the world, even a few from the U.S.

But most people, including me, do not come to London to buy American beer (way too expensive), no matter how good the beer is. There are so many other beers out there for you to try and this is the place to get them. But Borough Market is much more than beer. It's a great place to eat.

This stand had the longest line in the whole place and that's saying something since every stand had a long line. These guys were selling grilled chorizo sandwiches on Portuguese buns with sweet pepper, olive oil, and arugala. So I waited 20 minutes in line to give it a try. It was bloody brilliant, I mean wow, this and just about any beer is (was) possibly the best meal in London. All you would need to make this the absolute best sandwich ever is to be able to take it back to your seat and watch the rest of the baseball game. Anyway, I almost went back for seconds but a store across the street had the perfect ending to a great meal.

Konditor and Cook, this has got to be the best cake and biscuit (call it a cookie already) place in all of London. I'm sorry that I didn't take time to take a picture of the double chocolate brownie before it was devoured but at least I was kind enough to tell you about it. Next door to Konditor and Cook is Monmouth Coffee Company. You guessed it, coffee from all over the world. I had a very strong filtered coffee from Guatemala (it was perfect).

After that it was off to the Vinopolis wine shop to get wine for the dinner party. That's all for this post. If and when you make it to London, make sure you visit Borough Market. Notice the Red Love Cow in the upper right of the picture above. (you might have to enlarge the picture to see it). There has to be a story there. Anyway Sunday was back to the same old rain and cold. Actually it's rained more often than not, since, but the sunshine was sure nice while it lasted.