Leaf or moth or both!

Identification - Fascellina chromataria.

I was doing a spot of bush staring, to see what catches my eye. I took a few shots of a lynx spider and was just about to move on when this dried leaf caught my eye. What drew my attention was that the shape was symmetrical and so I had a closer look.

What an amazing find! I wonder how many of these have been under my nose for the last year and I have failed to spot them. Well, I will be modifying my bush staring technique in the future.

With insects like this moth, mantids, spiders etc., it is all about spotting your first one. Once you have seen them a couple of times, they become more visible in the future. I was doing blip safaris nearly a year before I spotted my first snake, now hardly a week goes by without me seeing one.

It was the same when I first came to Indonesia. I knew that Indonesia was famous for mantids, but it was more than two years before I spotted my first one. I was here six months before I saw my first golden orb weaver spider, then I noticed that they were everywhere, up in the trees and even the telegraph wires.

Back to the moth - isn't nature wonderful, how a creature can evolve to mimic a leaf so closely and this moth is by no means unique. To think that no one has designed this disguise, it has occurred purely by a series of Darwinian accidents, the disguised moths surviving to pass on their camouflage genes.

Dave