Thanks for posting that Phil. Yes, my hosting company decided at the beginning of my ten day trip to switch my BugsInCyberspace.com site over to a new "modern" server machine, promising no downtime issues, etc.
Well, you already figured out there have been almost 2 weeks of issues at this point, including email downtime, shopping cart errors and the site not showing up at all. They're "working on it".
Truth be known, it has been sort of good for me to have this break. I collected a bunch of bugs and have been busy acclimating them to their new lives in captivity. I'm still not done yet. It's a lot of fun and I've found some eggs already of one beetle species
Cotalpa consobrina (close relative of Edgar Allen Poe's "Goldbug").
I only found a small handful of mantises, but one I'm very excited about was found in the Algodones Dunes in SE California (the night after we collected with Mantiforum member PhilinYuma).
I'll be putting together a slideshow after things settle down here a little bit more.
Stay tuned!
Two photos from Madera Canyon (one of the most famous US collecting locations). Black Witch Moth (Noctuidae) and unknown but common larva, perhaps of sphingidae. There is some interesting mythology surrounding this moth that you can read about on this page:
http://www.texasento.net/witch.htm
