The Beautiful Bright Green Luna Moth - Nature 148

We saw a beautiful bright green critter it is called the bright green Luna moth. The grub making its way through our yard.

Image 01 - A Luna moth.

The moths are admired for their beauty and are regarded as some of the most remarkable moths in North America.

These moths with scientific name, Actias luna, are commonly located in forested regions and are nocturnally active.

We just learned about that their lengthy twisted tails are an adaptation that help them avoid being eaten by bats, which we have plenty of in our neighborhood.

The way they flit, and spin will actually scatter a bat's sonar signals and give them a bit of an edge when it comes to evasion.

Image 02 - A caterpillar stage of a Luna Moth.

Apparently, they don't live too long (a single week once emerging from cocoon).

Have you seen Bright Green Luna Moth in Nature?

# Previous postings:

- The Rainbow Before Evening : How often Should we Consume Blueberries? - Part 1 – Food 35

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : White Hominy Pearls Tossed with Coconut Shreds – Part 2 – Food 32

The Velvet Black and Blue Swallowtail - Nature 147

We had a butterfly visit to our backyard regularly, really pretty. That is the Velvet Black and Blue Swallowtail.

Image 01 - The butterfly with beautiful spots. 

Beautiful coloration with the velvet black and blue on upper side, and the orange spots on underneath.

It is difficult to get a good shot on upper side, since they love to flap their wings while sipping nectar.

The Velvet Black and Blue Swallowtail refers to the Pipevine Swallowtail, with its scientific name, Battus philenor.

The butterfly is found in North America to Central America, including in our neighborhood, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Image 02 - The butterfly flies over plants.

Have you seen this butterfly in your neighborhood?

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Why do We rarely Spot White Doves in Nature? - Science 30

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Blooming of Supertunia - Nature 146

Supertunia flowers have quite longer blooming period in our areas. They could bloom from Spring to Fall seasons. 

Image - Supertunia flowers.

Supertunia is one of popular flowers in our neighborhood. The reason to be chosen as a garden flower are: 

- long-lasting beauty

- vibrant blooming

- heat and drought tolerance.

We have seen several colors of Supertunia flowers, few of them are:

- yellow, red

- purple, pink

- brown and blue

Do you familiar with Supertunia?

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : A Pheasant in Neighborhood – Nature 45

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The Eggs of Apple Snail on the Rock of Lake - Nature 145

When we visit lake by the capitol of our city, we saw plenty of pink things like worms around the lake.

Image 01 - Eggs on the rock

We took pictures, and search through Google. The result said that they are eggs of Apple snails.

In an intriguing behavior, Apple snails deposit their eggs on diverse surfaces above the water's edge, including:

- rocks

- plants

- pipes

- and man-made structures

Image 02 - Apple snail eggs

In the one cluster (worm- like) of Apple Snail's eggs may have hundred to thousand eggs individual. The incubation period for the eggs is approximately 7 to 14 days, contingent on the temperature.

Image 03 - Apple snails (source: Google).

Have you observed Apple Snail eggs in the nature?

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Black Cobra Chili Plants – Food 31

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The Passion Flower in the Yard - Nature 144

The Passion flowers thrive in sunny areas. If we are lucky, we may find this flower along open areas (woodlands), roadsides and in fields. 

Image - The Passion flower, blooming. 

This flower is one of the native flowers in our state with scientific name Passiflora incarnata, and common names: 

- Apricot vine

- Purple passionflower

- Maypop

- Passion vine

In our areas, blooming of Passion flowers is about during in the late Spring until early Autumn. 

Do you observe this flower in your region?

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Local Coffee Shop in Our City, Baton Rouge

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Raising Cows on Local Farms - Nature 143

Some people have health issues, even diagnosed near to death due to consumption of processed foods. 

 

Image - A local cow 

Other people avoid foods such as meat because it just did not TASTE right. They found out WHY our beef from the grocery store and most restaurants doesn’t taste right. Several reasons are:

- the mass production

- full of antibiotics

- drinking water from a very dirty well

- lack of quality in general.

Interestingly, one of our neighbors began by consuming beef from his own cattle. Now, he supplies the community with high-quality beef at unbeatable prices. 

Do you know who is raising the local cows?

# Previous postings:

- The Rainbow Before Evening : Cooper Hawks Love to Come to Bird Feeders – Nature 44

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Local Coffee Shop in Our City, Baton Rouge

A coyote Carrying a Cat at Neighborhood - Nature 142

We just saw a coyote carrying a cat in our neighborhood sometimes. He was heading in the direction of nearby "very tiny forest."

Image - A coyote carrying a pet.

Lots of subdivisions popping up everywhere, around our city. The wild predators have no place to go anymore!

They are hungry and looking for food.

Moreover, yes, many our neighbors saw the wild predators in the daylight walking down our street. it happens all the time

Sadly, if some neighbors let their cats or small pets outside, they can get ate from wild animals (coyote or fox), hit by cars and even catch diseases.

What wondering us (We want to know) why wildlife and fisheries cannot trap them and move them to secure places (forests)?

What do you think?

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Mural Paintings by Local Artists – Art 8

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The Daddy Longlegs Spider - Nature 141

We thought an insect which crawling at our house, but after looking it in detail, aww, it was an "Arachnids."  

Image 01 - Look like an insect

The different between Arachnids and insects in terms of legs, body segments and antennae. The Arachnids have: 

- eight legs

- two body segments

- no antennae 

The insects have:

- six legs

- three body segments

- antennae

Image 02 - The Arachnid crawling

The common names of this Arachnid:

- The Daddy longlegs spider

- Harvestmen

This Arachnid is harmless and can’t bite peope, because its mouth is too small. They are useful to control mites and insects.

Image 03 - The Daddy longlegs spider

Do you know this critter?

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Happy Halloween to Who Celebrates It – Art 6

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Short Lifespans of Male Mosquitoes - Nature 140

We have posted the lifespans of female mosquitoes with maximum about 5 months only in nature. 

Image 01 - Live of male mosquitoes (from Google)

You may read previous posting of female mosquitoes:

- The Rainbow Before Evening : A Female only Needs to Mate once in Life - Nature 130

However, male mosquitoes have shorter lifespans than female mosquitoes, just about 7 days. 

Male mosquitoes live solely to mate with females and die shortly after. Once they have fulfilled their mating role, they are no longer essential for the species continuation. The biological purposes have been reached.

Image 02 - A corner of our neighborhood 

Do you have mosquitoes around your areas?

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Canadian Geese Live Permanently in Neighborhood – Part 2- Science 23

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Blending in Pretty Well on the Satsuma Tree - Nature 139

We found this guy on our Satsuma, blending in pretty well. This critter is an insect, called as Katydid.

Image - A Katydid crawling on Satsuma fruit. 

I think this is a fantastic camouflage.

This remarkable creature is expert at blending in, often looking exactly like green leaves or twigs.

These insects are type of grasshoppers. Katydid has longer (slender and elongated) antennae than grasshoppers.

They are often found on various plants, especially in areas with abundant vegetation, including fruit trees.

On the Satsuma trees, Katydids feed on:

- leaves

- flowers

- and sometimes fruits.

Nature is amazing. I wonder how many earlier generations died because they were not the perfect color.

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The Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly - Nature 138

 Have you seen this butterfly in your gardens or yards?

Image - Eastern Swallowtail

She is an Eastern Swallowtail butterfly and shows the beautiful iridescent blue on bottoms of the wings.

A beautiful visitor to the front garden!!!

The Eastern Tiger swallowtail female is particularly beautiful. Haven’t seen many of them, so lucky to meet one of them.

The butterfly feeding on a pink colored Penta. Plenty of Penta flowers was sold in nurseries during Spring.

It does well in our hot climate and comes in a variety of colors:

- red

- pink

- white

- and lavender.

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Simple Homemade Coconut Oil glazed Beef Jerky – Part 2 - Food 24

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The Canning Pear Tree with Fruits in Neighborhood - Nature 137

 Few of our neighbors have canning pear trees in their front yards. We saw plenty of fruit hanging from the trees this morning.

Image 01 - The Pear tree with fruit in neighborhood.

Yes, we as neighbors or anyone else may pick this fruit "as many as we want" for free or with no cost. 

Some people like to eat pears raw just as you would consume an apple. They are very good.

In addition to eat raw, we love to make:

- jam

- pie

- and preserves

Image 02 - Pear fruits, sold in Walmart

# Previous postings:

- The Rainbow Before Evening : Watching the Bluebird Broods Playing Around – Nature 40

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The Black Soldier Flies (Hermetia illucens) - Nature 136

The fly is found inside the house. Based on GoogleID, it is suggested the fly is a Black soldier with scientific name Hermetia illucens.

Image 01 - The Black soldier fly.

The flies live well in the humid climate regions such as our state, Louisiana. They are excellent decomposers.

Their larvae are voracious to many kinds of materials (organic matters) such as:

- food (kitchen) scraps

- manure

- rotting flesh of dead animals.

Hence, the larvae voracity potentially to break down waste, and then convert it into valuable nutrients.  

Image 02 - The fly is crawling

Louisiana State University (LSU) has studied the potential use of black soldier flies in production of animal feed, waste management and production of biofuel.

Image 03 - Head of the Black soldier fly.

Do you recognize this kind of fly?

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Blooming of Gloriosa Lilly - Nature 135

Temperature is getting higher, more than 85* F (30* C) in our areas, hence it is good time for tropical origin flowers to bloom.

Image - Blooming of Gloriosa Lilly

Gloriosa Lily, one of the flowers which is native to tropical areas such as Asia and southern Africa, blooming in our state, Louisiana nowadays. 

This lily has multiple common names. some of them are:

- cat's claw 

- tiger's claw

- flame lily

- fire lily

- creeping lily

- glory lily

- climbing lily

This ornamental plant is well loved for its vibrant flowers that comes with many colors include yellow, red, orange and pink.

Have you seen this flower in your area?

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- The Rainbow Before Evening : Dungeness Crabs from Gulf of Mexico – Science 19

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The Injured Turtle in the Flower Bed - Nature 134

We found the injured turtle in our flower bed few days ago. Poor turtle. That one may be too badly injured but it shouldn't suffer.

Image 01 - The injured turtle 

Obviously, the turtle can still crawl, and the turtle still pokes his out of his shell, so still alive.

It is a small turtle. You might wonder why the critter in flower's bed, it is because the critter eats:

- flowers

- vegetables

- and fruit.

First, we contacted Fish and Wildlife department, but no respond.

Image 02 - The red rose, blooming

# Important postings:

- The Rainbow Before Evening : The Red Shoulder Hawk at Neighborhood – Part 2 - Nature 71

- The Rainbow Before Evening : A Hummingbird on my Blueberry Tree – Nature 70

Image 03 - Day Lily in the early Summer

Then we called LSU small animal hospital and an exotic pet vet, unfortunately we have not heard back from them.

Finally, an animal rescue and rehab gave some recommendations:

1) 90% of the time the best thing to do is let an animal heal on its own.

2) Protect from ants and house-flies.

3) Provide water and food and shade.

Image 04 - The flowerbed, late Spring

What do you think?

# Previous postings:

- The Rainbow Before Evening : A Canadian Goose with a Broken Left Leg – Nature 39

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