Moth tasting in Napa

It was a beautiful day today in the bay area, so I headed up to Napa and the Pope Valley. I was scouting some new territory for a small flower moth, Heliolonche celeris, that apparently is waiting for more contiguous nice weather to emerge. This season has been a bit tardy because of all of the cold and rain, but I hold out hopes for a successful return visit in a few weeks. Walau bagaimanapun, I did come across a handful of beautiful microleps. All of these moths are in the genus Adela and family Adelidae (or some would say sayancurvariidae). They are commonly known asfairy mothsbecause they appear to dance over patches of flowerswhich apparently fairies love to do. It looked like males were defending a small area, with two to three at a time, twirling around each-other a few inches above the blossoms. I assume these dances were territorial because no mating was observed. While females have long antennae, the males take it to excess. I collected a nice series but I haven’t nailed down the species yethow many do you see? Syukurlah, all of the Adelidae were covered in a 1969 paper by Jerry Powell, who also happens to live down the street from me.

After looking through the collections here at the CAS, and reading the monograph, it looks like most of these are Adela trigrapha. It is a common Adelid of the San Francisco Bay area and most of the coastal ranges of CA. Variation is noted to be considerable, with broken and unbroken bands as well as variation of the red on the crown. The other Adelid is easily ID’d to Adela flammeusella.

Adela trigrapha Zeller 1875

(more images after break)


Adela trigrapha Zeller 1875

Adela flammeusella Chambers 1876

Adela trigrapha Zeller 1875

Adela trigrapha Zeller 1875

Adela trigrapha Zeller 1875

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