Think you’re a whiz at nature trivia? It won’t matter for this game. If you’ve followed this blog for a while you might recognize some of the names in these questions. Nice. You’ll have an advantage over the newcomers.

Also, I added some random photos of moths to enhance the entertainment value. Do I know the names of those moths? Nope. Do you? Great. Bonus points to you.

Answers at the bottom of the post. You might choose to write down your guesses and then check them at the end. Or you might choose not to. Play the game the way you want.

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1. Which of these is NOT the actual name of a moth species?

A. The Laugher

B. Scarce Infant

C. Ambling Twig

D. Black Langessa

2. Which of these is NOT the actual name of a bird found in South Africa?

A. Natal Francolin

B. Salvin’s Prion

C. Yellow-tailed Mystifera

D. Wing-snapping Cisticola

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3. Is ‘Snaky Arches’ the common name of a plant, mushroom, or moth?

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4. Which of these is NOT the actual name of a moth species?

A. Marbled Wave

B. Water Veneer

C. Many-lined Carpet

D. Spotted Herald

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5. Is ‘Wild Madder’ the common name of a plant, mushroom, or moth?

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6. Which of these is NOT the actual name of a bird found in Australia?

A. Macquarie Shag

B. Hairy Thikwol

C. Southern Boobook

D. Varied Thriller

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7. Is ‘Rufus Fuzzyfoot’ the common name of a plant, mushroom, or moth?

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8. Which of these is NOT the common name of a butterfly species?

A. Gold-spotted Aguna

B. Sapphire Slip

C. Dull Firetip

D. Fritzgaertner’s Flat

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9. Is ‘Scurfy Quaker’ the common name of a plant, mushroom, or moth?

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10.Which of these is NOT the actual name of a butterfly species?

A. Happy Tramp

B. Confused Calisto

C. Malachite

D. West Coast Lady

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Answers below.

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1. ‘Ambling Twig’ is not the name of a moth.
2. I invented the name ‘Yellow-tailed Mystifera’.
3. ‘Snaky arches’ is a moth species.
4. ‘Spotted Herald’ is not the real name of a moth.
5. ‘Wild Madder’ is a plant.
6. ‘Hairy Thikwol’ came out of my brain. It’s a fake name.
7. ‘Rufus Fuzzyfoot’ would be a terrific children’s book character. It’s also a mushroom.
8. ‘Sapphire Slip’ is made up.
9. ‘Scurfy Quaker’ is the name of a moth species. Of course it is.
10. I made up the name ‘Happy Tramp’ because it sounded like a name a butterfly person would pick.

Did you get them all right? Congratulations. You’re a real biologist now. Miss some of them? I mean, it’s a dumb game, right?

Last weekend, we finally got a nice frost and it was well received by prairie macro photographers like me.

By which I mean me. I received the frost well.

Here are some photos of that frost at Lincoln Creek Prairie, here in Aurora, Nebraska. These were all photographed where I found them in the prairie and without the use of flash. The dark backgrounds on some of them are from patches of shade behind them.

The frozen crystals were exquisite and I was really grateful to be able to admire them through my macro lens. Capturing images of what I saw was nice too, but I would have been satisfied just to look at the frost. Fortunately, I was able to do both because that made it a lot easier to put together this blog post. I hope you enjoy the photos.