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Saturday, August 23, 2014

Tomatoes in the City

I've posted before about how living in the city looks different than those "living Charlotte Mason" in the suburbs and in rural environs. This week, we found this beautiful moth on our tomato plant. I tried to identify what kind of moth this is (if anyone knows, please let me know) using a moth identification website, but my search returned 400 moths, and I'm not even sure if the information I entered was correct.

Identifying a moth involves identifying its resting shape (arrow, parallel, tent, etc.), its forewing's main color, distinctive color, distinctive pattern, length, coastal pattern (how many dark transitions are there), and shape (angle, fringe, hook, etc.), hindwing shape (angle, fringe, tail, etc.), group, family, genus (there are a lot of moths!!!), and more.

My daughter and I found the moth while picking tomatoes. It looked exactly like a dead leaf, but then I saw it had legs!
See him in the lower half of the photo. He's staring right at you.
Our tomato plant was a huge surprise. About three months ago, my husband discovered it growing next to our palm tree. Yes, we have a palm tree. The only part of our apartment's little patio that is not paved by bricks has a palm tree. It was a selling point 10 years ago ("And look, you have your own palm tree."). How Southern California.
Our palm tree


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