The lion's share of the aphid

A few weeks ago, while I was on a trip to Arizona, I took a walk in the desert.  (I did not make much progress as far as walking was concerned, though.)  There were many flowers blooming along the sides of the trail, so I zigzagged  from one flower to the next, checking for crab spiders or any other visitors (but really hoping for crab spiders). 

Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) flowers and one of the several crab spiders that I found.

It was not long before my diligence was rewarded by my discovery of a very small crab spider.  After that, I checked each flower even more intensely and in the end found several small crab spiders, some with even smaller prey. 

A juvenile crap spider (Mecaphesa sp.) eating what looks like a thrips.

For example, the spider above is eating a tiny insect that appears to be a thrips.  Meanwhile, the remains of another crab spider's meal can be seen in the bottom left corner of the picture below (it is probably a tiny fly or bee).

This crab spider had already finished its meal (if you look closely, you can see what was left of it).

In my search for the spiders, I also encountered quite a few other visitors to the flowers, including another successful predator.  This predator was a lacewing larva that I caught in the act of living up to its name 'aphid lion'.

A lacewing larva, a.k.a. an aphid lion, with a captured aphid.

Another tuft customer

Although the small, tufted moth was unusual, it is not the strangest tufted moth that I have seen.  That dubious honor goes to the common looper moth (Autographa precationis) that I encountered last fall. 

A common looper moth (Autographa precationis).

From above, the common looper moth has an odd shape, but it doesn't seem all that impressive.  However, viewing the moth from the front reveals an elaborately curved tuft crowning the moth's head.

The common looper moth from the front.

The tufts don't stop there either.  The common looper moth has a row of three tufts down its back and the raised corners of its wings form what looks like a small, fourth tuft.

A profile view of the common looper moth.

Despite its name, this creature did not look much like a common moth to me -- and if it had been on some tree bark instead of the window, it might not have looked like a moth at all!

One tuft customer

Frequently, I will approach a leaf to investigate a mysterious object resting on its surface... only to discover a bit of debris that has fallen from some other plant.  However, every once in a while, my curiosity is rewarded.

Just some debris on a leaf?

The speck on the leaf shown above, although not very promising from a distance, turned out to be one of those rare objects that merited a closer inspection.

A small moth with a large tuft.

It was a small moth that had managed to obscure its shape by tucking in its legs and folding back its antennae.  Another unusual feature that stood out (quite literally) from the moth's otherwise streamlined appearance was a dark brown tuft of scales behind its head.  As I studied the moth from a variety of angles, it began to attract some more intimate attention.

An ant approaches the moth.

An ant came up and used its antennae to feel the moth.  For a moment, neither the ant nor the moth made a move and I wondered if the ant would attack.  Then the moment passed and the ant continued on its way, leaving the moth behind as if it really were just an uninteresting bit of debris.