You look like ... bird poop*

... and I mean that in the best possible way. That look might let you sleep all day and boogie all night.

On the trail in Richardson yesterday I had my eyes peeled for caterpillars and spiders on the creek bridge. Took me several looks to realize this was an ermine-caped hunchback moth, not a major bird dropping.

Ermine-caped hunchback moth is not a scientific name, although it should be! Moths are much more difficult to identify than butterflies, and there are so many more species.

Sending flying vibes to friends coping with breast cancer and testicular cancer this spring. Wrapping you in capes of camo, if not cloaks of invisibility.

Here are two other moths I've initially mistaken for bird poop:

Ft. Worth Botanical Garden , Nov. 2012

Oak Pt. Nature Preserve, Plano, 2010

Moths happen. Party all night. Wigs and capes optional.

*euphemism (n.) 

1650s, from Greek euphemismos "use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one," from euphemizein "speak with fair words, use words of good omen," from eu- "good" (see eu-) + pheme "speaking," fromphanai "speak" (see fame (n.)).

In ancient Greece, the superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies, or substitutions such as Eumenides "the Gracious Ones" for the Furies (see also Euxine). In English, a rhetorical term at first; broader sense of "choosing a less distasteful word or phrase than the one meant" is first attested 1793. Related: Euphemistic; euphemistically.

All photos © 2013 Nancy L. Ruder