Silver pattern green geometrids - moths I get confused by (F)
Photo credits: Dichroma equestralis @jennyparsons_201pringle | Argyrophora moderata @kooscl | Drepanogynis bifasciata @karoopixie
Thank you to the photographers!
Photo credits: Dichroma equestralis @jennyparsons_201pringle | Argyrophora moderata @kooscl | Drepanogynis bifasciata @karoopixie
The Nepheles (Sphingidae).
Photo credits: N. accentifera @rodswazi / @seanakruger / inset @bartwursten | N. peneus @wynand_uys / @qgrobler | N. vau @roelofvdb / @suncana | N. argentifera @meagan37 / @mexel | N. comma @scottfrichardson / @bartwursten / @bartwursten / @martinmandak | N. aequivalens @martinmandak | N. cf. rosae/oenopion @bartwursten | N. bipartita @bartwursten | N. funebris @ricky_taylor
The insets of the silver markings are all from the left forewing.
Notes
The yellow/brown emperors with stripes, scallops and the pinkish wavy wash along the trailing wing margin.
Photo credits: Tagoropsis flavinata @magdastlucia | Pselaphelia flavivitta @richard_johnstone | Aurivillius fuscus @dhfischer / @paolocandotti / @dhfischer | Nudaurelia wahlbergii @carasylvia / @evingrody / @lindaloffler
Owl moths of the Erebidae. I call these the cellophane comma moths. They all have the distinctive yin-yang marking.
Quick cheat sheet
Detailed cheat sheet
Photo credits: Cometaster pyrula: @wynand_uys @hrodulf @dhfischer | Spirama glaucescens: @moira_fitzpatrick | Calliodes pretiosissima: @dhfischer @karinmitton | Erebus walkeri: @rodswazi @martinmandak | Cyligramma fluctuosa: @bartwursten | Cyligramma magus: @henrydelange | Cyligramma latona: @annagood @muonmo
Erebus atavistis occurs in Zim. No obs that I can find on iNat yet. E. atavistis on Afromoths - https://www.afromoths.net/species_by_code/EREBATAV?tab=photos
Erebus atavistis copyright TMSA on Afromoths
Photo credits:
Top: Chalciope delta: @katebraunsd | Fodina cf embolophora: @magdastlucia | Parafodina pentagonalis: @dhfischer | Pseudomaenas leucograpta: @karoopixie |
Middle: Parachalciope mahura: @andrewdeacon | Trigonodes exportata: @woodowlwildlife | Pseudomaenas directa: @karoopixie |
Bottom: Chalciope pusilla @spidermandan | Cuneisigna cumamita: @bernadine2 | Cuneisigna obstans: @henrydelange | Cuneisigna rivulata: @remco
Most of these triangles are in the Erebidae except for the Pseudomaenas which are geometrids.
I have not been able to find any images of Fodina arctioides which has been described from KZN. When browsing the Fodina obs, it does seem to me that there are perhaps 2 species there, but I can't tell you if this is so, or which are which.
A series that is for myself and anyone else who has to look these things up everytime they have to ID them ;-D
The Anaphes (Notodontidae: Thaemetopiinae) and Parapluda invitabilis (Limacodidae)
Photo credits: Anaphe reticulata @faruk_w | Anaphe panda @paolocandotti | Parapluda invitabilis male @moira_fitzpatrick | female @suncana
We have a lovely variety of francolins in southern Africa, and they can sometimes be tricky to ID.
The species are Greywing Francolin (Scleroptila afra), Redwing Francolin (S. levaillantii), Shelley's Francolin (S. shelleyi), Orange River Francolin (S. gutturalis), and to a lesser extent, Crested Francolin (Dendroperdix sephaena) and Coqui Francolin female (Peliperdix coqui).
I have tried to use neck patterns here because this is the bit that, fleetingly, sticks out from the grass as the little chaps hurry away out of sight.
All images from iNaturalist, and copyright remains with the photographers.
Redwing: @ammartin
Greywing: @michael_mcsweeney
Orange R: @nikborrow and @tapaculo99
Shelley's: @markuslilje
Crested: @michael_mcsweeney
Coqui: @richardgill
KEY TO THE BROWN FRANCOLINS
1a. Neck pattern black speckles bordered by ochre on nape and throat...Redwing
1b. Neck pattern speckly rufous or chestnut with no black necklaces...Crested
1c. Neck pattern ochre, rufous or whitish bordered by black speckles or necklaces on both nape and throat...2
2a. Bill all black, neck pattern ochre or rufous bordered by black speckles on both sides...Greywing
2b. Bill yellow at base, necklaces more definite black...3
3a. Small bird with very short bill that is mostly yellow. Nape necklace does not extend to throat...Coqui female
3b. Medium sized birds with nape necklace extending to throat, bill large and hooked...4
4a. Centre of belly barred black on white, distribution eastern...Shelley's
4b. Centre of belly faintly barred or spotted brownish on white, or flecked rufous on buff, never black barred, distribution western...Orange River
Current distribution records on iNat for Shelley's (blue) and Orange River (orange)
Hope this helps :-)
If you have any suggestions for improving this, please let me know!
Okay, so let's put some pics and sounds in your posts! The images and sound files have to be on the internet somewhere, they cannot be on your computer!!!
Contents
The basic code is <img src="https://www.website.com/imagename.jpg">
img = image
src = source
Now if you have images on iNat that you'd like to use, you need the path to the particular photo (not to the observation).
STEP ONE - locating an image on iNat
RIGHT-CLICK on the image you want to use in your journal post, LEFT-CLICK on Copy image location. Then on your journal post, add the text <img src="
and then PASTE the location you copied from your image - in this case https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/15496211/large.jpg, then type ">
so it looks like this <img src="https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/15496211/large.jpg">
That's one image and it will be the width of the journal post box, like so:
STEP TWO - locating an image not on iNat
To link to an image that's on the internet but not on iNat, you use the same method above. The image must be yours or you must have permission to use it and credit the photographer/illustrator (this is true for iNat pics as well, of course!!). The image has to be on the internet, not on your hard disk/computer!
STEP THREE - images in rows
Now, if you want to add, say, 3 pics in a row, you need to add a bit of extra code to stipulate the width of each pic. We'll use percent rather than specific width so that it looks good on different screen sizes (hopefully). So, the extra code is style="width:33%"
which will give you 3 pics in a row. If you want 2 pics then you'd use 50% etc.
So our code for 3 pics in a row looks like this <img src="https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/15496211/large.jpg" style="width:33%">
(repeated 3 times) and it looks like this (using the same pic):
Of course you'd want to use 3 different pics, so you copy the image location for each one as in Step 1, for example:
<img src="https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/15496211/large.jpg" style="width:33%"><img src="https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/29440856/large.jpeg" style="width:33%"><img src="https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/56653928/large.jpeg" style="width:33%">
and you will end up with something like this:
STEP FOUR - adding spaces between pics in rows
Now, the pics are all 'stuck together', which is not a bad thing, but you might want to have some 'breathing space' between them, so you need to add a bit of code to the style attribute - padding:10px;
- so your code for each image now looks like this - <img src=""https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/15496211/large.jpg" style="width:33%; padding:10px;">
and the pics look like this:
Argyrophora stramineata photo credit @karoopixie | Argyrophora arcualis photo credit @karoopixie | Argyrophora trofonia photo credit @karoopixie
You can change the width of the space between the pics as you choose. I have used 10 pixels here, but you can use less (~ 5px) or more (~ 20px). Play with it and see what works for you on the particular post you're creating.
Add captions and credits
To get this to look awesome requires a lot of styling attributes, so I'm going to suggest a simple method only.
Beneath the photos type in the captions and credits (use @ mentions for images on iNat). Use a pipe (|) or other character between image credits. And I suggest you put a line beneath to separate it from the rest of the text. To add a horizontal line just type <hr>
.
STEP FIVE - Advanced resizing
(Only go here if you're feeling brave.)
In the above example the pics are all different sizes and you may want them the same height without squishing them widthways. For this you have to stipulate max-height
and max-width
. The max-width can remain a percentage, but the max-height has to be an actual pixel height which is where things can go a bit wobbly. So, to get the max-height you'll have to play around with pixel sizes until you get what you're looking for. Change the size and then check in PREVIEW how it's going to look. If it's not right, increase or decrease the number of pixels. For this example I have used 200px - style="max-width:33%; max-height:200px; padding:10px;"
and it looks like this:
The original pics have to have a height of greater than your max-height to end up the same height on your post using this method. If the original pics are smaller, then you will end up with a row of pics of different heights anyway. This is very advanced stuff, so if you've got here, well done, and you can go and have a coffee now ;-)
You can add audio to posts too!
The basic code for adding iNat audio is:
<audio controls>
<source src="https://website.com/audio.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
Your browser does not support the audio element.
<p>caption and credit</p>
</audio>
and the audio looks like this:
Bokmakierie duet by @karoopixie
You can embed recordings from other sites too if they allow it. On Xeno-Canto you can click the "Embed" link and it will give you the code you need to add to your post. Just copy and paste, and it will look like so:
.