I’m gonna post some dead stuff. Random and unassociated save for the fact that they are all organic formerly living items that have all become deceased lately. The largest subject is a seedless watermelon that I purchased sometime in the fall of 2016. You heard that right – fall 2016, nearly two years ago. I didn’t intend to keep it for that long, but since I know that cucurbits tend to last awhile I set it on the countertop and stored it until such a time that I wanted to consume it. Well it lasted many months, including the entire summer of 2017.
By the time its first anniversary rolled around, it had become sort of an experiment to see how long I could prolong its lifespan. Well folks, we have an answer: About 21 or 22 months. I don’t know precisely what date I purchased it because I hadn’t planned this in advance, but next time I buy a seedless melon maybe I should think ahead and write down the purchase date just in case. Mind you that this melon sat on the counter in a hot, un-air-conditioned house frequently at 85 F (29 C) or higher between June and September. That’s some staying power! For comparison, I once grew a small pumpkin in Colorado in my garden that I also managed to keep for almost two years before it started rotting, but that house was much cooler in summer because it had AC since it was on grid. So how long have you kept a fruit or vegetable without spoilage? Comment below, I’d be interested to know. 
This is the first black witch moth (Ascalapha odorata) I saw on July 24, 2018 about 3 weeks ago. The millipede near it (Orthoporus ornatus) was about 4 inches long and both were drinking from a puddle left by the hose after I watered the plants.
The other two items are dead critters I found. On the left is a black witch moth, one of the world’s largest moth species. This one is about 4.5 inches (12 cm) across the wingspan but they can get even larger than that. I found a living one in my house the size of a bat about three weeks ago, and then this dead one in the house last Friday. They are not the same individual either – this one is male and the other was female. Black witch moths aren’t rare, but they aren’t seen all that frequently either, so it was interesting to have two in one year since many years go by without seeing any.
Black witch moths migrate hundreds of miles in a lifespan lasting not much more than 2 to 3 months, and are most commonly reported from states bordering Mexico, although they have been found in nearly every other US state as well in very low numbers. The wings get tattered by winds and bird or other predator attacks, so the more ragged looking they are the older the moth generally is. These two were nearing the ends of their lifespans. (Well, in fact the male in the first photo had reached said point.) There are the largest noctuid moths in the Americas, found from Brazil to the southern USA with rare vagrants reaching as far north as southern Canada. Larvae feed primarily upon leguminous plant species.
Close up view of the dead tortoise taken Aug 3. You can see the dehydrated feet with claws still attached. Poor little guy.
Lastly, the bottom right item is a dead baby Sonoran desert tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) shell only about two inches across. I found it near the path to my water well two weeks ago and estimate that the baby was not much more than a year old at most when it perished for whatever reason. You can see the little mummified feet still in the empty shell, although the head and tail are gone. What killed it, I cannot know, but it does point to the risks that desert tortoises face in terms of surviving in their infant years, when they are vulnerable to predators, droughts, and extremes of heat and cold far more than adults are.
And thus concludes the post-mortem reporting on three disparate items. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming of cacti and living plants.
Detail of the top of the baby tortoise shell. The plates are still so thin and fragile – no wonder so many die in infancy by predation since they just aren’t strong enough to resist attackers yet.