heterocera
a moth on the floor, no longer alive
scanned with tissue paper on top
learned a new word: moths are heterocera
remembered other moths here and here
March 16, 2014 in Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena
by Marja-Leena Marja-Leena Rathje
on printworks and other passions
by Marja-Leena
Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt … ♪♫
Ah Rouchswalwe, danke! I am delighted you like this. (I had some help from my dear one with the translation.)
Fragile little bits of textile aren’t they? Nice to see you here again.
Lucy, they do look like textile. The top of the moth looks furry when enlarged even more than shown here. Missed me already after not posting for 6 days? How sweet, thank you.
Rouchswalwe: Die Blaue Engel, Marlene Dietrich singing!
Marja-Leena: I might’ve mentioned before, but it’s been a big confusing in our life to try to get straight what’s what. For what I saw there would be in Finnish “koi”, it’s also in the Bible, where someone says koi syö ja ruoste raiskaa (moth eats and rust rapes), in the context how everything disappears for good and the law of entropy is understood perfectly well. Koi is a moth that loves wool, and it lays eggs on wool shirts, so when you take them up in Fall they’re full of holes.
But my husband uses the word moth for ALL night butterflies. And now you say it’s another specie: heterocera! This your specimen is so fragile, that it made me to remember how they absolutely disintegrate when you touch them, just a little bit. And you manage to get it scanned!
We’ve seen magnificent huge night-butterflies, moths, some of which has a scull-mark on their back and our cat’s go furiously after them.
Ripsa, it IS confusing. I knew butterflies and moths are all Lepidoptera. The moths are a division called heterocera. But even the experts are not always agreed on this and sometimes even which moths are really butterflies. I have assumed that the drab brown and gray ones are moths but that is not always so. As for clothes/wool moths I assumed they are the tiny gray ones. This one is 5 cm. wide across the open wings. Anyway, I reveal my ignorance here and find much of the resource information not so clear but this page may be helpful if you are interested.
Instead I use my scanner like a microscope and feel awed by the amazing beauty of the patterns and textures! Thinking it was still alive I had picked it up with a glass and paper, ready to release it outdoors. It was not so fragile!
Oh, and I did not know that R’s line of song was Dietrich’s Blue Angel – how clever of you!
Marja-Leena:
I had long German at school, from age 12-19, the first foreign language was Swedish from 10-19, then at high school came yet English and Latin (three years both). Die Blaue Angel is one of my favorites, I probably have told several times already that I am filmihullu, madly after good movies. The other fine angel-movie is Wim Wenders’s Angels on Berlin Sky, which was shot in divided Berlin. Wenders is of course German, although done many movies in America as well, maybe his best America film is Paris, Texas.
Ripsa, I am always so very impressed how many languages Finnish students learn in school. One of my cousins speaks six fluently! It puts Canada to shame where French is usually the only second language taught, though that is changing in some schools, such as where there might be a large Chinese population.
Yes, I know what a film lover you are. You probably have better access to many of the European classics. One can see many of the old ones online but they are often very small in screen size. I wish I could see more Finnish films here. We rarely go to the film theatres, preferring to borrow DVDs from the library.
The colors and patterns on the wings in the first scan look like the work of a master weaver.
I suppose, in a way, they are.
I missed you too.
Susan, the work of the Master Weaver, indeed! And how nice to be missed, thank you. Sometimes I get lazy about posting even when there is so much I want and should write. Putting up photos is more fun 🙂
What an intricate design. Nice that you captured this.
Hattie, I’m pleased that I was able to and that you like it too!
Underneath, gold! What is it about these dead insects that they seem to turn to gold? You must have a Midas hand…
Marly, I think my Midas hand may be the scanner’s quality of light. I love love my scanner!
I hope my aging technology keeps on working. I would be facing another replacement as happened with the previous scanner when I had to update computer and operating system.
Well, if you have to, be sure and try it out with a dead moth!
That would be a good test, Marly!