Butterflies & Moths

Aussie grapevine moth: Phalaenoides glycinae

Comocrus behri: The Mistletoe Moth

Photographed today on our grape vine, using my Nokia Lumia 530, 5mp windows camera, on auto, cropped. Click on any of the images and you will be taken to the gallery.

UPDATED next day: I’m wrong.  This is the Australian grapevine moth (Phalaenoides glycinae) …  I got sidetracked by the drawing!   (I haven’t even got mistletoe)

Aussie Grapevine Moth

UPDATED: Here is what Wikipedia says about the right one:

The Australian grapevine moth (Phalaenoides glycinae) is a moth of the Noctuidae family. It is endemic to the south-eastern half of Australia, but is an invasive species in many parts of the world, including Canada and South Africa. The wingspan is about 50 mm. The larvae mainly feed on Parthenocissus quinquefolia, Hibbertia obtusifolia, Amyema gaudichaudii, Epilobium ciliatum, Fuchsia and Oenothera species, but mainly Vitis vinifera, hence it is considered a pest.

800px-Indian_MynaThe Indian myna (Acridotheres tristis) was introduced into Australia in 1862 to deal with a number of insect pests including the grapevine moth. In this it was unsuccessful, and ironically the bird is now itself considered a pest in many parts of Australia.

I’ll leave this here, even though it is not the same moth. It is a terrific drawing and looks much the same.

This moth does not have the same furry legs and underbelly.

This moth does not have the same furry orange legs and underbelly.

Wikipedia says:

Comocrus behri (Angas, 1847) aka ‘Mistletoe Moth’, is widely distributed in southern Australia from Perth to Melbourne and adjacent to Bass Strait, occurring as far north as Derby, Western Australia, and Clermont and Rockhampton in Queensland. It may be seen during daylight hours hovering around mistletoe species such as Amyema miquelii, Amyema melaleucae and Amyema cambadgei growing on Casuarina and Eucalyptus trees. The adult moths feed on Eucalypus flower nectar,have a wingspan of some 58 millimetres and are basically black with white bands running through the wings. Males exhibit ‘hill-topping’ behaviour, flying to high points in the landscape and there encountering females ready for mating.
IMAGE: By Arthur Bartholomew (1834 – 1909) (English) (Artist, Details of artist on Google Art Project) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Writing

On writing …

That’s a bit of a cheek, using the words I now associate with Stephen King’s book, but I thought it about time to tell you how my writing is going. And it is actually going at the moment, after a fair bit of stalling and avoidance.

For some time, I had decided I’d started the story too far in. I’ve mentioned this in comments here and there.  Anyway, after reading  Write Your Novel From The Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between by James Scott Bell, I was more than convinced to go back and fill in those missing three weeks from ‘when it all started’.

While my word tally reveals over 101,000 now, not all those will be in this first novel. I’ve determined that the ending is where it now stands at about the 63000 word mark. This means I already have the beginning of the next book well underway. I reckon, with the new writing to be done, it’ll come out at about 95,000 words, but it will be as long as necessary, I suppose.

I found an intriguing co-incidence after reading the above book. Mr Bell has worked out that what makes great movies and books is what happens in the exact centre. What happens there with a character’s personal decisions is actually what that character’s story is all about. He said to check any good book, or fast forward a movie, and you would find the main character changing direction in the exact centre.

I thought I would put this to the test in my novel – as it stood at the time because it really felt like it should be finished already. I have three main characters and in the exact centre, all three of them had a change of heart about something. And those three scenes are the only three in that particular chapter! I mean, how spooky is that!  By the way, I’m not really suggesting my book is great.  Anyway, now I have a firm grip on the character arcs of those main characters. I spotted what was going on without my being aware of it.

Now, what prompted this post today. Today’s writing has revealed that my main girl T is only 15!  I hadn’t really determined her age yet, and aping Terry Goodkind, I wasn’t sure it needed to be said. But today, there she is, saying it.

So, looks like I’m writing for YA readers after all.

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