Isa textula (not Thosea sinensis as I originally thought) - Don't touch!
I took a partial day off from running around like a crazy person, trying to get everything done. It didn't work very well, as I ended up working all evening on things, but... for a while in the afternoon, I relaxed a bit.
Outside, just outside my door, I saw this little thing... maybe a leaf? Maybe some stage of a insect's life? It was small... I touched it with a dead leaf and it moved! It was alive.
So, I used my id app to find out what it was, and then took this 50 photo focus stack of the creature.
I am leaving my original identification in the brackets, because there is so much discussion, in the comments, based on my original id. But, Wes Iversen correctly identified this creature as Isa textula, which DOES live in the USA.
[Original identification: Turns out it is the larva of a nondescript brown butterfly, with no name I could find, except its Latin name of Thosea sinensis.]
(The rest of the description fits BOTH creatures, who are almost identical looking.)
See all those little hairs.... especially those ones coming off what would be the spine area... if insects had spines? Those hairs are dangerous. If you just brush up against one of these critters you will instantly start to burn and sting with an allergic reaction. They even warn that some people might have a severe reaction and might have to go to the hospital!
Fortunately for me, I didn't touch it. After I photographed it, prodded it onto a leaf, and carried it to a patch of woodland, where the app said it lives. I checked later, and it was gone from where I left it.
So, a new critter for me, which I always find exciting. I had time to do all the stuff I have to do on the photo.... loading all 50 photos into my editing program and editing the raw images... then changing all the raw images into TIFFs, so they would be accepted by the Helicon Focus program, then putting them all into Helicon Focus and waiting for them to load, then waiting for Helicon Focus to put all the images together into what you see here, and then editing that image.
I have continued to enjoy all your photos, even if I am too rushed to comment. Thanks for looking at mine!
Isa textula (not Thosea sinensis as I originally thought) - Don't touch!
I took a partial day off from running around like a crazy person, trying to get everything done. It didn't work very well, as I ended up working all evening on things, but... for a while in the afternoon, I relaxed a bit.
Outside, just outside my door, I saw this little thing... maybe a leaf? Maybe some stage of a insect's life? It was small... I touched it with a dead leaf and it moved! It was alive.
So, I used my id app to find out what it was, and then took this 50 photo focus stack of the creature.
I am leaving my original identification in the brackets, because there is so much discussion, in the comments, based on my original id. But, Wes Iversen correctly identified this creature as Isa textula, which DOES live in the USA.
[Original identification: Turns out it is the larva of a nondescript brown butterfly, with no name I could find, except its Latin name of Thosea sinensis.]
(The rest of the description fits BOTH creatures, who are almost identical looking.)
See all those little hairs.... especially those ones coming off what would be the spine area... if insects had spines? Those hairs are dangerous. If you just brush up against one of these critters you will instantly start to burn and sting with an allergic reaction. They even warn that some people might have a severe reaction and might have to go to the hospital!
Fortunately for me, I didn't touch it. After I photographed it, prodded it onto a leaf, and carried it to a patch of woodland, where the app said it lives. I checked later, and it was gone from where I left it.
So, a new critter for me, which I always find exciting. I had time to do all the stuff I have to do on the photo.... loading all 50 photos into my editing program and editing the raw images... then changing all the raw images into TIFFs, so they would be accepted by the Helicon Focus program, then putting them all into Helicon Focus and waiting for them to load, then waiting for Helicon Focus to put all the images together into what you see here, and then editing that image.
I have continued to enjoy all your photos, even if I am too rushed to comment. Thanks for looking at mine!