A series of lepidopteran surprises!!!

Hey ya'll 

first and foremost, allow me to apologize for my unannounced period of absence. Not that I'm under the illusion that my blog has such a huge following or anything, but it always makes me feel better to apologize. Anyway as you might imagine, things have been getting pretty crazy around here (as they usually are when I fail to post updates here) and I think this is a very good example of one of those instances where you decide that you can handle a bunch of stuff at the start of the year only to realize, later on when they all fall down upon you, what a big mistake that was! Anyway, the worst of this 'hell spell' has somewhat abated and I am very much looking forward to my vacation to Perhentian Island next week! In the meantime, despite the unpredictable weather and incessant haziness, I've been getting a lot of lepidopteran surprises over the week! Beautiful butterflies and moths, literally popping out of nowhere! Talk about a sight for sore eyes! Anyway as I have put off collecting insects for the time being (I know it's probably silly of me but I can't bring myself to do it for the time being after Honey passed) most of these I just appreciated and then let them be on their merry way. But I did find some already-dead ones by the light that I thought might be worth adding to my collection. 

This moth, for instance caught my eye the moment I saw it! Not very big in terms of size but it has the most beautiful striking red abdomen, reminiscent of those you might see in Atrophaneura butterflies. 

This Sphingid moth on the other hand was very much alive when I found it. It was buzzing around with such ferocity that I had to catch it and place it in a container for it to calm down before I could snap a picture (it would have flown away otherwise). Khalid has identified it as Hippotion rosetta and, judging from the splashes of red peeking out from underneath its upper wings, I'm sure you can see why! I really do love Sphingids! They are arguably some of the 'manliest' looking, and yet stunningly beautiful moths one can ever find. 

Cheers,
Cyren