Strange But Lovely Creatures: Big Moths

This blog is about my taste in the unusual, in things horrible, strange, or tacky, and about my attraction to low humor. Well, I've got no cheap jokes for this post, but I do have a coupla nice pics of two weird beasties that could bump into you in the night.

I love looking at bugs, and the odder the better. On our trip last month to Kentucky and Arkansas, the Voodoo Queen and I saw some large and lovely moths. Not Mothra size, dammit, but jumbo-sized compared to most we see:



I know the bottom one is a Luna Moth, but not the name of the one shown in the top picture. I have never seen one of its kind before, and have seen a Luna Moth only once before in my life.

I was tempted to capture and keep both as specimens, but was persuaded not to by my better half. In fact we helped the top moth get up off the ground and fly back to patch of eggs it had laid high on the wall of the building we found it at.

Wouldn't want dreams of Mothra hunting me down to make a specimen outta me!

Okay, I lied when I said I had no cheap joke for this post. I remember this old chestnut--

Question: What's a specimen?
Answer: An Italian astronaut!

Sci-Fi film come to life!

Really Big Spiders Invade Australian Town!

Woodland and Cemetery Visit, Part 1

The Queen and I, celebrating the return of warm weather, went to the wild woods and to an old cemetery, just to see what we would see. I've brought back photos to share with you-- photos of weird forms in nature, and pics of old headstones.

We took snaps of various trees and vines with serpentine forms. The entangled forest we walked through fed our imagination with sights of snakes become wood; twisted fallen trees had changed into the form of dying brontosauruses. Tree trunks with bare roots were tentacled creatures.

It was like being a kid again.

I liked what I saw. Hope you do, too:

At this recent post, I shared a picture of an albino alligator. (Or perhaps it was a colorless crocodile-- I can't keep them straight.) Anyway, I just found a photo of what might be its natural prey:

Cute and creepy at the same time, hunh? (Coincidentally, that's how my wife describes me.)

I sort of like how the reflected light in its left gives a zombie look. Bambi, by way of George Romero!

One more thing...

...the "thing" being another cool (and ghostly-looking) reptile!

I forgot that I had in my files a picture of an albino alligator. I had found it somewhere on the 'net; I forget where. But there it is.

I hope that the thing winds up taxidermied when it passes away (if it's still alive). I have fond memories of seeing "Big Arkie," a 13 foot, 500 pound alligator that was big attraction at the Little Rock Zoo when I was a child; I remember seeing him both alive and when he was dead, because when Big Arkie died in 1970 he was stuffed and put back on display at the zoo for another few years.

At the time of his death, he was thought to be the largest alligator in captivity in the western hemisphere. He'd been caught in 1952 in a flooded pasture near Hope, Arkansas.

His body, seen below, is now in a university reference collection in Arkansas and is no longer on display to the public. But a lot of Arkansans, and former Arkansans like me, sure have vivid memories of the big hulk.

Photo by Dr. Stanley E. Trauth

Now THIS would make a great pet!

This very large cane toad was found a few years ago in Australia, one of the biggest ever seen. About as big as a small chihuahua, it was dubbed "Toadzilla". I think it would make a great pet!

I've always been fascinated with weird beasties. The denizens of the amphibian, reptile, and insect worlds, being cold-blooded and hairless, are so fundamentally alien. I kept pet turtles as a kid, my older brother had snakes.

As a horror movie-loving kid, I was fascinated by the poster below when it was put in the COMING SOON window of the local theater:

When I was a small child, my grandparent's house had some concrete steps in back, and the bottom step had a hole in it. A toad lived in that hole for some time and as a kid I wondered if that toad would ever lunge out at me if I got too close to the hole.

The little guy seen in the photo below looks like he would. This toad was seen at the American Dime Museum in Baltimore. When the ADM closed last year, it sold off most of its collection of oddities. I could not afford to buy anything in their online auction, but I sure found a wealth of images. Alas, my computer crashed later and all my ADM images but one-- this one below-- were lost.


The stuffed-and-embellished toad above would truly be a cherished pet in my home. It's perfect: nice to look at, easy to care for, and makes no noise. No muss, no fuss!

An account of visiting the American Dime Museum, complete with another picture of the terrible-toothed horny toad, can be found here.

And a recent news about the discovery of the fossilized remains of a giant "devil toad" (complete with artist's rendering) can be found by clicking here.









While you're wearing out your finger checking out links , go here and here to see some photos of some dazzlingly odd, cannibalistic, real horned frogs!

Odd science and technology news

Microsoft IS Big Brother

Sex robots will appear in the near future

Flying robot used to track whales

Robot baby dinosaur: fancy toy or "artificial life form" pet?



Newly discovered species of giant rat found! (Would make a great pet!)


(Photo above from the Flickr account of James Calder. Bill Gates photo from the Flickr account of niallkennedy.)

Things unearthed on the Net

Here's some interesting/unusual stuff I've found online-- first, a photo of an item at the bizarre Museum of Forensic Medicine in Thailand:


Click on the picture above to find out what the exhibit is. (Hint: Joseph Merrick would sure miss 'em if they were his.)

Was The Boys From Brazil based on a real incident?

The 16-year-old Haitian girl above is Marlie Casseus, a young lady who has been assisted by The International Kids Fund. You can see more photos and read more about the surgical help she's received here, and make a donation to the fund as well.

The Chinese man below, Huang Chunsai, is someone you've probably already read about. He had a 33 pound benign facial tumor; and had surgery to remove much of it. Fortunately, he apparently survived what was described as a risky, even dangerous operation. His appearance, even after surgery, is startling, so much so that the photo is a link to a photo showing how he appears now. To see a slideshow and read about his case, go here.

Mars shines for Christmas

An excerpt from an Associated Press news item:

Mars glows; no need for Rudolph's nose

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Thu Dec 20, 11:17 AM ET

Mars will be unusually bright this Christmas Eve and the moon will be shining full — a development that might make Santa Claus rethink his need for Rudolph's red nose.

That idea, from Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer, made us wonder if retooling a certain reindeer song is the best way to explain it to the kids:

Mars is a red-tinged planet

With a very shiny glow

And if you look to see it

You will find the moon in tow.

The red planet will shine brighter because it will be directly opposite the sun, reflecting the most light, and fairly close to Earth, only 55.5 million miles away. The full moon will appear nearby, rising about an hour later, said Horkheimer, host of the public television show "Star Gazer."

*********************************************
I love to post news items with the name "Horkheimer" in them. Because I'm a wisenheimer. Or items with "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" -- that's my name too!


News excerpt copyright 2007 Associated Press.

Ho ho oy!

A reader of TDSH sent this photo of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer's cousin on his mother's side:

You think THAT was bad?

Reader Pierre Fournier commented that the video of my head attached to a body dressed in 1920's flapper drag was enough to make him swear off drinking. Well, Pierre, glut your peepers on how I looked BEFORE the flapper outfit was put on:

That oughtta make you lay off drugs, too!

Two headed turtle!

From the Associated Press: "Store manager Jay Jacoby displays a two-headed red slider turtle at Big Al's Aquarium Supercenter in East Norriton Pa., Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007. The rare turtle is on display at the store." (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Reptilian shades of Hugh Lofting's Pushmi-pullyu!