Bob Perkins 5/29/14 Bob Perkins 5/29/14

Lemon Plagodis

This morning I found three Lemon Plagodis and an Oak Besma perched on a Velcro strap that holds my moth sheet tight. Enjoy!

Bob Perkins 5/20/14 Bob Perkins 5/20/14

Cecropia

Hyalophora Cecropia isn't a moth that I expected to see at my moth light here in the mountains. I had a brief glimpse of one in Lake Waccamaw State Park in North Carolina fourteen years ago today (5/20/14). The only time I had one to examine up close and personal, I was a kid on the family farm in Delaware, 60+ years ago. Cecropias are the largest of our North American silkmoths and they are spectacular in their own right. Enjoy the pics!

Bob Perkins 5/18/14 Bob Perkins 5/18/14

Io

The Io, Automeris io, is a Saturnid moth that has two adult forms. The dark morph is female and the yellow morph is male. The caterpillar, amply supplied with spurs for defense, feeds on an assortment of deciduous trees and plants including birches, elms, maples, oaks, and willows.

Bob Perkins 4/23/14 Bob Perkins 4/23/14

When a digital photo really helps

Identifying insects (and other critters) is a reasonable method most of the time, but sometimes is impossible. An example is the Geometer moth genus Hydriomena. There are probably several species in our area, but the color and patterns on the wings are highly variable and cannot be used safely to distinguish species. Last July I photographed a Zale that I was unable to identify at the time. This morning (April 23), I was recording the appearance of two species of Zale when I noticed an "unidentified" folder and took a peak. The moth was very dark at normal exposure/brighness and the pattern didn't show.

The above photo is a reduced version of the original. You can see a bit of the pattern in the wings but not much. So, I adjusted the brightness of the photo until the patter appeared. The result was a confirmed ID of

Zale aeruginosa

, Green-dusted Zale.

I spotted an

Orthosia rubescens

recently. The general color pattern was correct for the species, but the field guides indicate that the pattern on the wings is useless because it's so variable. In other words, pretty but useless.

However, unlike other similar Orthosia species, males of O. rubescens have bipectinate antennae (bristles on both sides). As you can see in the photo below, the antenna is clearly bipectinate and therefore the ID is proven.

Bob Perkins 9/1/13 Bob Perkins 9/1/13

What moths do at night

Because we see moths at lights or resting quietly somewhere during the day, it's easy to forget that many of them sip nectar just like their butterfly cousins. Here are two that visited my butterfly bushes on August 31.

The first one is Feltia tricosa/subgothica. This moth is either tricosa or subgothica. I'm told on good authority that a researcher can determine which species if the specimen is a male and he or she examines the antennae under sufficient magnification. Therefore an photograph, even a really good one, isn't adequate.

The second moth never stopped beating its wings. I got a focus lock and snapped a pic. The flash, lasting perhaps a thousandth of a second, turned the blur of the wings into something useful for identification. The moth is Allagrapha aerea, one of the Noctuid loopers.

Here's a photo of a resting Alagrapha aerea that I took in September 2012. If you examine the forewing of both moths you can show that they are the same species, but you'll look in vain on the flying moth for the dorsal tuft on the thorax of the resting moth. When it flies, the scales on the thorax lie flat.

Bob Perkins 9/1/13 Bob Perkins 9/1/13

Orange-striped Oakworms

This is the wandering season for oakworms. They come down from the trees and look, sometimes at considerable distances from the trees, for places to pupate in the ground. My wife found one and later I found two more on the back porch. Here's the caterpillar.

The species designation is Anisota peigleri/senatoria because the two are essentially indistinguishable as caterpillars and as adults. A. senatoria is the widespread species. A. peigleri is found in the southern Appalachians. Here's the moth.

Devin Floyd 12/6/10 Devin Floyd 12/6/10

A Passion for Moths--My 2010 Moth Big Year

Clymene Moth,

Haploa clymene

©Merrill Lynch

Snowflakes are falling as I type.

Winter has arrived in the High Country and, I'm afraid, the end of the moth season for 2010. So now is the time to summarize my season long quest to see as many species of moths as possible at a single location. I hope the following account of my mothing big year will be interesting and inspiring to those of you out there who share a passion for the nocturnal leps.

(Image to right: Painted Lichen Moth,

Hypoprepia fucosa

©Merrill Lynch)

I have been interested in moths

for the past ten years or so (noting new species in my tattered copy of Covell) but only started keeping detailed records in 2009, shortly after moving to Watauga County. In 2010 it became an obsession when sometime in June I added up the species I had recorded for the year and was stunned that I had close to 300 species and summer had barely begun! I then set my first goal, 500 species, which seemed at the time both realistic and reasonably ambitious. When I hit 500 species in early August, I decided to just keep at it full bore and vowed to keep the lights on and check the sheets until the last moth flew (or I was evicted from the premises by my long suffering partner!). I was also inspired by the efforts of the Tennessee moth'ers who had gotten together in the spring and decided to undertake an ambitious effort to document all of the moths in their state in 2010.

(Image above right: Ailanthus Webworm Moth,

Atteva punctella

©Merrill Lynch)

Before I get into the details of the big year,

let me just say that I find moths infinitely interesting. For one thing, they are beautiful insects that have an incredible diversity of shapes, patterns, and palettes--even the ones that at first glance appear brown and dull reveal intricate patterns and subtly beautiful colors at closer inspection. Sorry, diurnal lepsters, but butterflies don't have anything on moths! And another thing about moths. They are ubiquitous and abundant and exist in almost endless diversity filling every conceivable ecological niche. And they literally come to you--you don't have to go and chase them! Digital photography has really opened up the moth world to closer examination and has become an essential identification tool.

(Image above right: Rosy Maple Moth,

Dryocampa rubicunda

©Merrill Lynch)

In 2010, I recorded 632 species

of moths in my backyard, starting with a Grote's Pinion (Lithophane grotei) on March 8 and ending with Acrolepiopsis heppneri (a micromoth in the family Acrolepiidae) on November 3.

(Image below right: Io Moth,

Automeris io

©Merrill Lynch)

Details:

A Passion for Moths--Location

False Crocus Geometer,

Xanthotype urticaria

©Merrill Lynch

Location:

All moths were recorded in my yard or in a few instances at mobile light stations set up on my property within a 1/4 mile of my house. My farm is located in northern Watauga County, NC about 15 miles north of Boone and less than one mile from the Tennessee border. It is located in the headwaters of the North Fork of the New River and is about 3,400 feet elevation. Snake Mountain (elevation--5,580 feet) is the dominant local topographic feature; the summit is about 3 miles due south. Habitat is early to mid-successional mesic northern hardwoods (containing patches of older growth forest) with a narrow open riparian zone and nearby pastures. The area around my property is very rural and dominated by a mosaic of open pasture and hardwood forest with abundant small streams and springs/seepages. The only evergreens are scattered Fraser fir christmas tree plantations and planted white pine stands.

A Passion for Moths--Equipment

Dark-banded Geometer,

Ecliptopera atricolorata

©Merrill Lynch

Equipment:

My equipment consisted of 2 sheets lighted by one 160 MV lamp located in the front yard near a small stream; one towel mounted on the sheltered wall of the house under the porch roof, lighted by a single 15W fluorescent black light; and a porch light lighted by a 15W compact fluorescent white light. I also experimented with a sugar bait concoction that I painted on a tree in the front yard. I did this periodically throughout the season and was rewarded with at least a dozen species that never came in to my lights.

(image above right is of the Ironweed Borer,

Papaipema cerussata

©Merrill Lynch)

My general routine was to turn the lights on around sunset and check the sheets for 1-4 hours each night, first in the early evening between dusk and midnight and again in the early morning between 3-7am (pre-dawn), leaving the lights on all night. I tried to take multiple photographs of each moth that I did not recognize and also photos of fresh specimens of all species.for photodocumentation.

(Image to the right: Skiff Moth,

Prolimacodes badia

©Merrill Lynch)

All of my photographs were taken with a Panasonic GH-1 using a 45mm (90mm slr equivalent) macro lens. The images were downloaded daily into my computer where I would begin the arduous task of sorting and identifying the photos to species. The identification process sometimes took days and even weeks. I relied primarily on the images on Moth Photographers Group and Bugguide websites and also consulted moth guidebooks such as Covell's Moths of Eastern North America. Occasionally, I would send photos off for identification help, sometimes to Bugguide but also to moth experts. I took over 9,000 images during the season and have photodocumentation for about 80% of the 632 species identified.

(Image above left: the Hebrew,

Polygrammate hebraeicum

©Merrill Lynch)

I entered the data on an excel spreadsheet that I stumbled upon on the Internet which contained a database of over 1,600 species of moths recorded in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Over 90% of the moths I've recorded in Watauga County are in this database.

A Passion for Moths--Summary

(Polyphemus moth,

Antheraea polyphemus

©Merrill Lynch)

Summary:

I kept track of the nights that I actually checked the sheets and photographed moths, by month. The tally (monthly species total followed by mothing nights) is as follows:

(image to the right, The Herald,

Scoliopteryx libatrix

©Merrill Lynch)

March: 9 spp; 7 nights;

April: 55 spp; 20 nights;

May: 146 spp; 20 nights;

June: approx. 200 spp; 15 nights;

July: 272 spp; 30 nights;

August: 214 spp; 28 nights;

September: 187 spp; 24 nights;

October: 87 spp; 22 nights;

November: 7 spp. 2 nights.

Grand Total:

632 spp; 168 observation nights.

The first moth of the season

was Grote's Pinion (Lithophane grotei) seen at my sugar maple sap buckets on March 8 (with a foot of snow still on the ground!). Moths were few and far between until the first really mild nights of mid-late April when species diversity and numbers increased substantially. My first exciting find was an Immigrant Pinion (Lithophane oriunda) seen at my sugar bait station in early April. Recognizing its rarity, I sent off pics to various experts who corroborated the identification and confirmed the first record for this species in North Carolina! May and June brought an endless number of new species including many micros and many geometers. They also brought the first big boys, the larger sphinx and saturn moths. July was the peak month of moth diversity with 272 species recorded. August brought the first of the fall flying moths such as the borers (genus Papaipema) and September/October heralded the arrival of various noctuids collectively known as darts, pinions, and sallows. One of my favorite moths, the Large Tolype, made multiple appearances during these months. The final moth of the season was Acrolepiopsis heppneri, an interesting micromoth in the obscure family Acrolepiidae, noted on November 3.

Of the 632 species,

209 species were the so-called micros- families such as the torts (Tortricidae), grass-veneer moths (Crambidae), pyralids (Pyralidae), and plume moths (Pterophoridae)--122 species of geometers (Geometridae), 13 sphinx moths (Sphingidae), 24 prominents (Notodontidae), 19 tiger moths (Arctiidae), and 221 species of owlet moths (Noctuidae). One of my favorite groups, the Underwings (genus Catocala), were represented by 16 species.

(image above left: Locust Underwing,

Euparthenos nubilis

©Merrill Lynch)

I should mention

that I missed a number of day-flying moths that are not attracted to lights such as the wasp mimics in the family Sesiidae, some of the day-flying sphinxes such as bumblebee clearwing, and many others. I also do not claim that my list is 100% accurate--in fact, I'm sure there are some mis-id's. I tried to be conservative and only record those species I was reasonably sure about and in some cases I left the identification at the genus level. But moth identification can be very challenging and there are many pitfalls one must traverse in the process: bad lighting or angle in the photograph can obscure important details; many species can only be identified by genitalic dissection and are visually inseparable; many species are not represented by photos (or the photos are low quality) on the various websites; some species are highly variable and come in many different color forms; many moths that are worn and have lost many of their scales simply cannot be identified; etc. I'm guessing that of the total number of moth images that I took over the season, unidentified images amounted to about 5-10 % of the total.

(image above right: Giant Leopard Moth,

Hypercompe scribonia

©Merrill Lynch)

To put my record in perspective

, there are probably at least 2,400 species of moths in North Carolina; however, no one knows for sure because there is no official published list (although I hear rumors that Steve Hall at the NC Natural Heritage Program is working on this). This compares to 174 species of butterflies known in the state. Parker Backstrom, an avid moth'er in Chatham County, has recorded, I believe, around 700 species in and around his property over several years. Bob Patterson in Maryland probably holds the record for the most moths recorded at a single site--1000+ species-- but his record is cumulative over many years. I am not aware of anyone who has attempted a big year for moths but I'd be interested in hearing about it if anyone knows.

I should also say

that I don't think my location is particularly exceptional in terms of moth diversity. I am fortunate to live in the country and have an abundance of natural habitats around me but I think my number could easily be duplicated (or exceeded) by anybody dedicated and crazy enough to devote the necessary time and energy required. Dave Beadle, the author of the upcoming field guide to moths, tells me that he has recorded over 500 species in his tiny backyard in downtown Toronto, Canada that is less than 100 square feet!

I want to thank

Bo Sullivan, Parker Backstrom, Dave Beadle and Steve Hall for their inspiration, camaraderie, and identification assistance. Special thanks go to my partner, Gabby Call, for her infinite patience, understanding and encouragement. Thanks also are due all of the folks on the North Carolina and Tennessee moth list serves who provided much inspiration and encouragement.

Looking back on the year,

it has been a thrill to observe and learn about such an amazing diversity of creatures, literally at my doorstep. Beauty and the diversity of life exemplified by tiny creatures that are right in front of us but we know so little about. I've developed a greater appreciation for the small things and hope that others will too. Moths are just cool, period. I hope that all of you out there who are already bitten will share your passion with others. And for those of you who have not paid much attention to moths, I hope you will give them a second look. I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of Dave Beadle's moth guide due in 2012-- think back ten years ago when butterflying took off after publication of Glassberg's guide. And there is so much potential for folks to make contributions to science by simply observing and keeping records of these creatures; even basic life history information (flight season, food plants, etc) for many species is not known. And you never know, you may have a new species unknown to science waiting to be discovered right in your backyard. I can't imagine anything more exciting than that possibility. And finally, the most important thing to remember is that moths (and most other insects) exist in such profusion because of their long and intricate co-evolution with the plant kingdom--the conservation of biodiversity is the most important task and responsibility that we humans face.

Hornworms or hummers?

My wife and I have devoted a lot of effort to providing plants for wildlife to utilize for food and shelter. I greatly prefer to have a plant provide nectar for hummingbirds than to put out a feeder with sugar water. Coral or trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is a native species that provides a beautiful red flower with abundant nectar for hummingbirds (see photo above). This seems to be an unequivocal win for the garden since it is beautiful, hardy, and highly attractive to hummingbirds. But today I discovered the "rest of the story" as it pertains to the biology of this wonderful honeysuckle.

As I sat rocking on our porch without a care in the world, I suddenly noticed something troubling- there were bare spots on our two honeysuckle vines and tell-tale small dark pellets on the ground underneath. The pellets seemed to be "frass" or caterpillar poop and this indicated something was eating our valuable vines! A quick search and about 10 minutes picking produced the haul shown in the photograph of a group of caterpillars, mostly green but a few brown. A close-up of one of the more common green ones (see photo below right) indicated that this was clearly a hornworm with a terminal harmless spine. I checked this out in the "bible" of caterpillar identification (Wagner's "Caterpillars of Eastern North America") and found a match with the snowberry clearwing sphinx moth. This moth in fact resembles a hummingbird in its flight characteristics and feeding on nectar, but mimics a bumblebee as a means of protection from avian predators.

So here I had a conundrum- some very interesting caterpillars of a species that I value were competing with both hummingbirds and their own adult stage by eating the plant that produces their nectar. My solution for the moment is to pick off all the caterpillars that I can find (far from an easy chore since they are VERY well camouflaged- green and subtly counter-shaded to blend in extremely well with the foliage) and put them in a container where I will feed them on less valuable honeysuckles until they get ready to pupate, when I will release them.

So what have we learned- that once again Nature is more complex than our simple mindsets, and that manipulation of plants for our purposes is often diverted to other ends? This provides an education for us to remain open to new ideas and to value this complexity and not to find it frustrating. Indeed it is exciting that the unexpected can break out and astound us- we have only to be observant and find wonder in the events as they unfold. I also learned that I can sometimes learn more while rocking on the porch and contemplating Nature from that perspective than hiking in the woods and fields!

Bill Dunson

Galax, VA & Englewood, FL

Bill Dunson 7/6/10 Bill Dunson 7/6/10

Beware fuzzy caterpillars!

We have planted many hundreds of trees and shrubs on our property to encourage wildlife of all sorts, so I keep a careful eye out for pests that eat these plants. Some of the worse problems are due to insects that come in groups, such as caterpillars of various moths. I am used to dealing with army worms and web worms but came across a new enemy recently. Groups of hungry caterpillars appeared on our treasured black walnut trees (and sumac also) and started a full-scale attack (see photo above). In their young stage they were white with black spots and a black head, and were quite hairy. Now a fuzzy caterpillar often means "KEEP AWAY" since the hairs can be irritating and even toxic. These turned out to be hickory tussock moths or hickory tiger moths which are well known to possess stinging hairs and even to be toxic for birds to eat. They group together, likely with their siblings that hatched from their mother's eggs, and remain together for some time until they get much larger when they live alone (see photo below, of a much older caterpillar from our yard- not a typical coloration- often they are more black and white).

It is interesting to think about why not only insects but many types of animals group together in flocks or swarms. It is usually considered to be a defense, potentially to confuse and divert the attack of predators. In the case of these caterpillars, it is also likely that distasteful and/or toxic

creatures

ban together with siblings to gain an additional advantage if a predator does attack and learns to avoid this color pattern in the future. Siblings that share many of the same genes will benefit more by being together with their brothers and sisters than with strangers, if they are attacked and some are sacrificed to teach the predator to avoid the others.

Caterpillars have a variety of defenses other than stinging hairs and toxic flesh. They tend to be active at night and group together in daytime under protective webs. When I touched the leaf on which the young hickory tussock moths were sitting, a surprising thing happened- numbers of caterpillars began to drop down to the ground quickly on web lines (see photo). You might wonder why this would be necessary when these caterpillars seem to be so well protected. However virtually all good defenses have spawned a specialized predator that can circumvent the defensive strategy- in this case it is the yellow-billed cuckoo (see photo) which is a fuzzy caterpillar eater. Not

coincidentally

we have noticed far more cuckoos on our property this year than last when caterpillars were not so numerous. So the hickory tussock moth caterpillars drop from the tree at the

slightest

indication of a cuckoo being present, and can then crawl back into the tree after the cuckoo leaves.

The intricate natural history of something so seemingly inconsequential as a tiger moth caterpillar tells us once again that the adaptations of this larval moth are subject to very specific design criteria to maximize its chances of survival and subsequent reproduction. So even if we destroy some of these creatures that eat our yard plants, we cannot fail to marvel at their remarkable methods of existence.

Bill

Dunson

Galax

, VA &

Englewood

, FL

Bill Dunson 12/29/09 Bill Dunson 12/29/09

Snake plant flowers

It is hard to believe that anyone has not at some time had snake plants (Sansevieria) in their family households. The ability of this interesting but strange plant to survive almost any treatment made it popular around the world as a house plant. Unfortunately in warmer areas such as Florida they ended up planted outside and have caused considerable problems since they are highly invasive, especially in shaded forest locations where native plants are crowded out by the snake plant. Removing them is problematic since the roots break into small pieces and generate many new plants.

I have fought a running battle with snake plants in our Florida yard since a former owner got them started. So I always considered them a big pest with no redeeming qualities. However I have now recognized that the regular Winter-time blooms of these plants are actually quite interesting from an ecological perspective (see photo). A spike of white tubular flowers emits a powerful fragrance and is actually quite beautiful, if you can get past the bad-boy image of this species. I am always interested in predicting what might pollinate specific flowers, based on flower color, shape and smell. I found out that this plant originated most likely from Western Africa but have not yet found out what pollinates it in its native habitat. However the white tubular flowers with a strong odor indicate pollination by a night-flying moth with a long tongue, possibly a sphinx/hawk moth whose larvae are often called horn worms.

I did find one article that determined that the primary sugar in the nectar of the common snake plant is sucrose, and predicted that this in conjunction with the flower structure would attract mainly sphinx moths. Note also that the authors found extra-floral sources of nectar and surmised these might satisfy creatures such as ants that might otherwise steal the flower nectar and limit the plant's ability to reproduce:

http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/58/4/541

So look around you with a renewed interest in plants and animals that you might have dismissed as unworthy of notice, and you may find unsuspected beauty and interest among the "bad boys" of the natural world.

Bill DunsonEnglewood,

FL & Galax, VA

Bill Dunson 12/6/09 Bill Dunson 12/6/09

The Io moth & caterpillar- some amazing natural designs

On a nature walk this morning at Stump Pass State Park in Englewood, FL, our group came across two caterpillars of the Io moth (see photo). At this stage they are a striking light green, with a red and white stripe along their sides. The younger caterpillars are brown to orange-brown. Although we were tempted to pick this beautiful green caterpillar up, I knew that this species has poisonous spines that can cause a lot of pain. One might assume that the green coloration is for camouflage, although it is so bright that it might even be considered a warning coloration along with the red/white stripes. The branched, poison-bearing spines pack a powerful jolt to any potential predator.

Strangely enough it was about three years ago that I saw the adult of this strange moth at our farm in Galax, VA. The unusually colored adult moth appeared on a window screen one morning where it must have been drawn to the lights the night before (see photos). With the wings closed the moth is cryptic in the right background and would presumably escape detection by most predatory birds. If it is detected and is poked, it opens its wings and reveals a marvelous set of false eye spots (see photo). Many moths have eye spots on their hind-wings that mimic an owl's face or just provide something scary for a bird to think about. But the Io moth has what I consider the most impressive set of eye spots. But even so I am amused that a bird would find this intimidating.

One again we can be amazed by the evolutionary process that can lead to the development of such a remarkable pattern. The variety of animal coloration is a never ending source of wonder.

Bill Dunson

Englewood, FL & Galax, VA

Clyde Kessler 11/10/09 Clyde Kessler 11/10/09

Sallows & Other Moths

Over the past few weeks in the evenings, whenever I turn the porch lights on, sallow moths gather.
They flutter near the screen door, and along the wall--some station themselves in little seams in the wood paneling, others perch there as if frozen into the light.

The most common is Bicolored Sallow (Sunira bicolorago). Several arrive every warm evening, little swarms of orangish yellow edged in a thin purple. As many as twenty or so zone in on the light by the front door. Two Octobers ago, I saw more than fifty, an outright crazy swirl of them that would hurdle and joust about, when I would get close. But mostly these moths just wait there, owned by the light.

A few other sallows have graced the wall:

Footpath Sallow (Metaxaglaea semitaria)
Battered Sallow (Sunira verberata)
Three-spotted Sallow (Eupsilia tristigmata)

A few other species of sallows have visited too, but I haven't keyed them out.

Other moths in the last few evenings:

Implicit Arches (Lacinipolia implicata)
Armyworm Moth (Pseudaletia unipuncta)

And likewise, several that I can't identify.

For most of October, I felt a special joy in seeing Rose Hooktip Moths (Oreta rosea). It is a favorite, a rather muted orangish rose color with a few darker lines, and of course the wings have a wonderful hook at the wingtips...at least that's the color pattern of the ones resting on the wall and screen door, up to six or seven on more than one evening.

I will have to start focusing a camera at them, or sketching some pictures and share those some time in the future. Right now, you can visit many wonderful moth web sites...I like the moth photo pages of Bob Patterson, and others at the moth photographers group web site....

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/

I don't like to leave lights on very long, extra on electric bill, but more I think it disrupts their moth schedules. They should be foraging, flitting, courting, mating, ovipositing etc., not hunkered at my house, mesmerized and captured by porch lights. I turn the lights off soon as everyone is home from their evening travels.

What moths are you all finding these November nights?