[open post -- winged and once-winged insects]

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad has collected every insect guide he could find in the mansion's library, and now he is camped out in a laboratory it seems to have created particularly for him and Susan -- the room has its own microscope, so that he can stop borrowing Claudius', and every single shelf is filled with glass habitats or mesh tents for keeping insects.

With his single-minded determination, he has filled many of them -- the tents house carefully potted foot-high milkweeds with tiny butterfly eggs affixed to their leaves, or potato plants he hopes will soon harbor potato beetles, or butterflies resting on the mesh. In the glass habitats there are millipedes, gleaming tenebrionid beetles, huge and bumbling scarabs, the dogbane leaf beetle Lancelot helped him capture, shiny blister beetles, leafhoppers in every shade of green, a pair of picasso bugs, an mantis he found in the greenhouse pretending to be an orchid flower.

Many of these insects stay only long enough to be identified and documented. Galahad and Susan between them take careful notes, make drawings, take pictures. When possible, they identify to species; more often, they identify genera or family, country of origin if they're lucky. Then they let their subjects go again. Neither of them has the time nor the inclination to feed and care for the immense diversity of insects living on the mansion's grounds. Potato beetles are one thing, but catching other tiny insects for the tiger beetles every morning is unsustainable. Galahad doesn't mind. Once he has a picture and the notes, the insect is saved, even if they don't see it again.

In the morning he trains with Lan Wangji, so it's an afternoon now when he's perched on a stool in front of the microscope, inspecting a chlaenius beetle to see whether it's possible to confirm a species. Unfortunately, these beetles are too fast and squirmy to put on a slide alive, so he's ethered it first. Now he's working diligently on his sketch, his pale head bowed as he studies the tiny body.

[Open especially to anyone who needs to be reassured that Galahad is back after the mod event and he's just fine now]

Comments

[untamedantinous]

Enjolras is presumably returning from helping Laertes and Sagramore with work on their house, but pauses when he sees yet another room he hasn't explored before. He pauses when he sees Galahad at work, clearing his throat as he comes in to stand nearby. "You've quite a lot in here."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Susan and I. Do you want to see?"

[untamedantinous]

"Yes. Tell me about them?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad reaches for his hand and leads him over to one of the mesh tents, where a number of chubby orange grubs dotted with black are peacefully munching nightshade leaves. "We think this is a swamp milkweed beetle. We're waiting for it to finish growing up first, but the color and pattern and host plant are right."

[untamedantinous]

Despite himself, Enjolras is reminded with a pang of Combeferre. If the man had had room for it, he would likely have done the same sort of thing in his apartments back in Paris. He gives Galahad a small smile. "I see. And you are collecting these to find out information about them?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes. I'm taking notes on each stage of development."

[untamedantinous]

"Ah. Combeferre would be envious of all you've learned, I'm certain. He quite adored entomology."

[onthewillowsthere]

"What did he like?" Galahad asks.

[untamedantinous]

"He had a particular fondness for moths, but most anything he could study, really."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Claudius says there are plants that bloom at night so moths will come to them. I want to see that."

[untamedantinous]

"Oh! I am certain there are, but I do not know much about them. Combeferre would have."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you want to learn?"

[untamedantinous]

He shrugs a little. "I have never had any special fondness for plants; but it might be interesting."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I meant moths. I can teach you some things."

[untamedantinous]

“Oh. —Well, yes, alright.” He doesn’t have any special interest in moths; but it’s certainly something to do with his time.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Their order is lepidoptera." He takes Enjolras over to the hummingbird hawk-moth tent, where the caterpillar is devouring its host. "These are Macroglossum stellatarum. This is the first instar. It can pupate in as little as twenty days." His voice has the cadence it gets when he's reciting.

[untamedantinous]

"And an instar is a...ah, stage?" He vaguely recalls the word from Combeferre's digressions about moths. Did he ever pay attention? No, not really.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes. There are two instars, but some insects have many more. In the second instar the larva will become green with two grey stripes."

[untamedantinous]

“I see. And what do they look like when they are fully grown?”

[onthewillowsthere]

"Large and brown, with a thick, soft body like a bird's, with a fantail of setae. When in flight, orange or pink hindwings are visible."