This Monday moth is an Arctiinae, Gnophaela vermiculata. These beautiful day flying moths were abundant on yellow Helianthus flowers around 9000′ in the Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico. Caterpillars feed on bluebells, but the adults prefer the highest quality nectar source in the area – which fortunately makes for easy and attractive photo subjects.
This Monday moth is a stunning female of the Neotropical Megalopygidae – Trosia nigrorufa. Ed Ross and Ev Schlinger collected this specimen in Peru in 1955, and I’ve heard many stories about these epic expeditions. I can’t really imagine travelling via cargo ship, being gone for six or more months at a time and relying…
Oops, I skipped last monday’s moth, so here are two! These are some stunners from the CAS Philippines expedition and I think I have figured out their names. If you know better, please correct me.
This Monday’s moth is a duo of Schinia villosa (Noctuidae) resting on what I am assuming is their host plant (Erigeron sp.). I snapped this shot around 9,000 feet up on the Kaibab plateau in Northern Arizona last month. A fire must have burned the area a few years ago because the wildflowers were thick amongst…
Last week Jim Hayden guessed the moth I posted was an Australian Oecophoridae. It was a good guess because there are so many large and stunning moths in this family from Australia. One of the best has to be this one, Wingia lambertella (Oecophoridae), captured on Black Mountain in Canberra October 23, 1955 (CAS collections). The…
ANSWER: This wasn’t easy – but this large and beautiful moth was from Australia and is in the family Xyloryctidae (Philarista sp.). We have a handful of representatives of this group here in the US and Ted MacRae over on Beetles in the Bush has a few great photographs of them. Somehow I think we got the…
Here is another wonderful video from Warren! I am guessing this is a Choreutidae because of the way the wings are held while dancing – although it’s too fast to really get a clear look. Given that it’s from a fauna I’m totally unfamiliar with I could easily be wrong – so please correct me…
This week’s moth is a video of a dancing micro from the Philippines (taken by Warren Laurde). As you might suspect this is a mating display that ends in a pretty spectacular headstand. There are lots of other microleps that have dancing or display behavior, but there are almost no other videos online and…
This Monday’s moth is a spectacular species from the mountains of Arizona – Chiricahua multidentata, a Geometrid. The only known location for this species is at the very top of the Chiricahua mountains above 9,000 feet (which was just bruned to a crisp). Hopefully the fire was not entirely devastating and the population will rebound in the…
I’ll keep the ball rolling with Arctiinae and post a photo today of Ctenucha brunnea. This moth can be common in tall grasses along beaches from San Francisco to LA – although in recent decades the numbers of this moth have been declining with habitat destruction and the invasion of beach grass (Ammophila arenaria). But anywhere…