I am looking at many moths in our barn these days. This is one of the larger ones. I think it is a sphinx moth of some kind but I do not have a proper ID yet. Any help would be appreciated.
I have a bug zapper in the barn to help cut down the number of insects pestering the goats and donkey. Unfortunately it also attracts and kills many small moths. The larger moths cannot get through the screen so are safe but that mean that we often have more moths in the barn during the daylight hours. I found this one early this morning on the gravel floor of the barn. It's common name is "Virgin Tiger Moth."
It's rare that I find any slime moulds and never have I found two in two days before. Well, actually Fleur-Ange found this one but it was on our front lawn.
The photo was taken through a microscope at 20 x.
This slime mould is "common" on lawns according to the literature. It looks like someone spilled grey ashes on the grass.
According to my mushroom book, slime moulds move like an animal but reproduce like a fungus so they are hard to classify in the regular scheme of classifications.
(Beorge Barron's Mushrooms of Ontario.)
If you are looking for some, have a look at a rain soaked, well rotted log.
I used new software to stitch together four or five iPhone photos to make this image. Water levels are low in northern Ontario due to lack of snow last winter. I've not seen this little water below the dam before.
This is the Smooth Rock Falls dam across the Mattagami River. Smooth Rock Falls is the home town of Fleur-Ange.
