moths – Page 14

The Moth and Me #6

Summer is drawing to a close for us here in the northern hemisphere. The weather is cooling, the nights are becoming cool though the sun still warms our faces during the day. We have another couple of months of mothing left to us, if we’re lucky, here in Ontario. Already we’re starting to see a shift of the species composition into the pinions and sallows of fall. Has the summer passed as quickly for you as it has for me?

Despite having missed a month mid-summer while I was wrapped up in moving, we’re already at edition #6 of The Moth and Me. We’re back on schedule with this one, or nearly, anyway. Because it was a shorter window since the previous one, there was less time for people around the blogosphere to post about moths. Still found plenty of great content, though! Check them all out, below.

Having decided that the carnival would be better off roaming than static, we’re looking for hosts for future editions of The Moth and Me. Since I hadn’t heard from anyone yet about hosting I put together this edition myself, but #7 (October) and #8 (November) as well as #9 (March) onward, still need hosts. Because it’s still very small it’s a pretty easy carnival to host, particularly compared to some of the larger ones like I and the Bird. If you think you’d be interested, drop me a note with the month you’d like to sign up for: sanderling [at] symbiotic [dot] ca.

Edit: We now have hosts secured for #7 (October) and #8 (November), but are still looking for hosts for #9 onward. October will be hosted by Lori at Reflections on the Catawba, and November will be by Susannah at Wanderin’ Weeta.

To start, I’m going to repeat a link that was featured last edition. National Moth Night is taking place this Friday and Saturday nights (Sept 18-19) in the British Isles. If you reside on that side of the pond, why not take part? From the official website:

“NMN is all inclusive and open to anyone to take part in, both expert and beginner alike. On the designated
date, participants throughout the British Isles are encouraged to see what moths they can find in their chosen location and the results are pooled into Britain’s largest survey of what species are on the wing. Much important information has been generated on National Moth Night, including new species for various counties, new sites for scarce species and records of rare immigrants; amazingly, in 2008 a population of the White Prominent (a species that had not been seen in the British Isles for 70 years) was discovered in Ireland.”

If you have any doubt that the British are way ahead of us North Americans in moth appreciation, just look at the assortment of field guides they have available to them over there.

9415 - Bridgham's Brocade - Oligia bridghamii — Bridgham's Brocade, Oligia bridghamii

But why should they have all the fun? I propose that those of us who unfortunately find ourselves on the wrong side of the pond all join in anyway. Let’s make this a weekend of discovery – I think everyone, everywhere, should participate in National Moth Night on Friday or Saturday night, and then follow that up by flipping some rocks for International Rock-Flipping Day on Sunday. Let’s see what we can find! Don’t worry if you can’t identify everything (or anything) – this is about having fun and discovering new things!

If you want some tips on how to attract moths to your yard, check out the NMN site above, or go to the equipment and techniques page over at my moth blog, North American Moths. If you’re having trouble with identifying your bugs or moths, you can sign up for an account at BugGuide.net and submit your photos via their ID Request page (you have to log in first).

Celery Looper, by John of A DC Birding Blog

Just as our summer is starting to wind down here in the northern hemisphere, spring is starting to creep back upon the landscape down in the southern hemisphere. Duncan of Ben Cruachan, one of TMaM’s regular contributors from earlier in the year, is back again – and so are his moths. Edit: Check out Duncan’s latest post, including the delightfully stout and fuzzy cup moth.

Diane Tucker, Estate Naturalist for the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut, observes that moths have received some bad press over the last several centuries, and makes an effort to correct the misconceptions. Speaking of misconceptions, she also points out that the Wooly Bear caterpillar doesn’t really predict the winter… but you knew that, didn’t you?

A couple of weeks ago, John at A DC Birding Blog spent the night out with a friend, attending the Moth Night event held at a the East Brunswick Butterfly Park. The event had a good turnout, both by people and by moths. In attendance were multiple zales, armyworms and others. Finding himself on a bit of a moth kick, John also shares a few more spotted during daytime hikes.

Edit: Speaking of Moth Nights, check out some of the moths observed at Lori’s weekly Tuesday Night Moth Club events, such as this recent role call. Lori writes at Reflections on the Catawba, and will be hosting the October edition.

Luna moths, by Nuthatch of Bootstrap Analysis

Over at Bootstrap Analysis, Nuthatch’s 100 hungry mouths have become 100 horny moths. The end result? More babes to raise!

Susannah at Wanderin’ Weeta, shares a couple of moths she encountered recently – a grass moth that was doing an excellent job of camouflage in the yellowed grass, and a Large Yellow Underwing that seems to share some features with Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother…

Although there’s lots of great moth content over at Martin’s Moths, I chose to highlight this “Pinocchio moth“. Martin shares with us the reason for the moth’s long nose.

It’s hard to pick any one post from Ben’s Essex Moths blog, so I’ll just direct you to visit the main page. Ben reports on his latest catch nearly every day – talk about dedicated mothing! He shares photos of some of his more noteworthy observations.

Rob at Urban Moth sums up his August mothing with some great photos of a few of his favourites, including such delightfully named species as Burnished Brass, Chinese Character, and Figure of Eighty.

Brian at The Natural Stone shares some photos of recent moths to his trap, a Large Thorn and a Feathered Gothic.

From a completely different continent, Joan of South African Photographs shares a few moths she encountered hanging out in the vegetation during the day.

Finally, to wrap up this edition, I made mention of what I believed to be a Bronzed Cutworm visiting my garlic chives in a recent Monday Miscellany, an example of a moth normally seen at night encountered at flowers during the day.

That’s it for The Moth and Me #6. Join us in a month for #7 – October 15, 2009. Don’t forget to send in your National Moth Night posts (or any other moth posts!) to myself (sanderling [at] symbiotic [dot] ca) or to October’s host, Lori of Reflections on the Catawba (loriowenby [at] gmail [dot] com), on or before October 13, 2009. We hope to be inundated!

Monday Miscellany

Autumn is upon us here in the far north. Although most of the trees still retain their green colour, a few are beginning to shift to shades of red or yellow. And a very odd few have already made the change. I spotted this strikingly red tree not far from the road along the route I take to pick up my CSA produce every other week. It’s a little hard to see in the photo, but it’s growing alongside a little creek. I’ve noticed that trees with their roots in water tend to change sooner than those on dry land, and I’m not sure why that would be. Are the trees more stressed, since they get less oxygen and/or nutrients to their roots? Does the water make their roots colder? I suspect I could probably turn up the answer with some digging around on the net, but I’m running out of time today – heading out to return to the Big City for a couple of days. The purpose of the trip is for a doctor’s appointment with my specialist in Toronto, but I’m taking advantage of the trip back to visit with some friends, as well. I’d hoped to schedule something to go up tomorrow (The Moth and Me is due up!) but don’t think I’ll be able to get to it till Wednesday. But look for The MaM here on Wednesday!

A common late-summer flower is Butter-and-eggs, Linaria vulgaris, an introduced species that lines our roadsides and other disturbed places. The meadows here have a fair bit of it; I think these fields were cleared at some point in the last 50 years, and so are a fairly recent disturbance, as these things go. Fortunately, the plants seem to be well-visited by pollinators, suggesting that they do produce a lot of food for our local insects. This one is a bumblebee if undetermined species. It’s probably a Common Eastern Bumblebee Bombus impatiens, but don’t know if I could say for sure just from this photo.

Notice that the Butter-and-eggs work a bit like snapdragons, with a lower “lip” that the bumblebee pulls down when it lands, opening up the flower so it can get inside. Presumably this prevents smaller pollinators from getting in. The bumblebee’s head and back are covered with huge mounds of pollen, deposited there by the flowers, which it will in turn carry to other flowers. Smaller insects wouldn’t be large enough to collect and transfer the pollen.

My favourite part of this photo, though, is the bee’s long red tongue. Also, its right foreleg, which you can see waving about in the air by its head like another antenna. When the bee exited the flower, each time it would wipe the pollen from its eyes with the bristles on its foreleg.

I found this secured to a branch in our cedar hedge. It’s the cap to a lepidopteran cocoon, though the inhabitant has long since left. I don’t know what species of caterpillar built it – it’s old and bleached and papery, leaving no clues that would help with identification. The rest of the cocoon would have been split open when the moth or butterfly emerged, and is long since gone, leaving just this little bit, resembling an acorn cap, hanging from the cedar branch.

I noticed a few of these rolled-up leaves in our grapevines when I was checking on the status of the grapes (still mostly green – I’m looking forward to being able to make pie with them in a month or so). Looking down the tube you can see that it’s been secured by many silk threads. These are the work of leafroller moth caterpillars. You’ll find rolled leaves like this not only on grapevine but also on other species of trees and shrubs. There are also leaf-folders, which just fold the leaf once instead of rolling it into a tube. I was hoping to find the caterpillar still inside, but when I unrolled the tube the owner had already left. All that remained was lots and lots of frass (caterpillar poop).

In a Monday Miscellany from a couple of weeks ago I shared an image of a vacant Argiope web with its characteristic zig-zag. I’ve been seeing more and more webs with their owners present lately. This one is a Black-and-Yellow Argiope, Argiope aurantia. Most of the time the webs they’re sitting in are empty, but this lucky spider had caught not one, but two grasshoppers in its snare. The grasshoppers looked like they had once possibly been Red-legged Grasshoppers, but they were wrapped up and it was difficult to discern any field marks. Most spiders would be too small to handle these large grasshoppers, and it’s possible that if a Red-legged hopped toward the web of a smaller orb-weaver it might pass right through. Argiopes have the heft and size to entangle and consume large prey such as this.

Our landlady, the house’s previous resident, planted a row of sunflowers down by our vegetable garden back in the spring. They grew very well over the summer and are just beginning to bloom. Sunflowers are such cheerful flowers, with their bright yellow faces held high to the sun. These ones are probably eight feet tall, towering over me. We’ll leave them where they are and allow the seeds to mature, and in the late fall and winter the Blue Jays and chickadees will enjoy hanging from the nodding flower heads to pick out the seeds.

Opisthocomus hoazin (Hoatzin) by Arthur Chapman

And finally, to wrap up this week’s edition, something a little different. I have signed up for a slot with Kolibri Expedition’s trip to Manu, Peru. My particular departure is set for November 13, 2010. Although there are a number of other bloggers also signed up to go, I’m hoping to entice some of my readers to come join me on this fabulous trip! It’d be a great way to escape the dreary November weather, and you’ll still be back in time for the American Thanksgiving. You can read more about the details and itinerary here.

In the meantime, I thought I would end my miscellany posts by choosing a species that will likely be seen on the trip and sharing a bit about it. Needless to say, because I haven’t been to Peru the photos will not be my own – but they will all be ones labeled for Creative Commons use. The photos will click through to the original source.

This first week I selected Hoatzin. This might be my number one desired species for the whole trip. They are just such cool birds. Considered by many scientists to be the “missing link” between the prehistoric Archaeopteryx, young Hoatzin bear claws on their “wrists” that they use for clambering about in the trees. Even adults do more clambering than flying, partly because their flight muscles are reduced in order to accommodate a larger stomach. Their stomach, in turn, needs to be larger because of the birds’ diet. They feed primarily on leaves, with only small amounts of fruit, flowers or insects. The leaves are broken down in an oversized crop using bacterial fermentation, much like cows and other ruminants do. However, unlike cows, the Hoatzin only has one stomach. Because of the bacterial digestion, the birds apparently have a rather manure-y smell, leading to the local name of Stinkbird. They can be fairly tame, for a wild bird, perhaps because their smell has discouraged much predation from humans.

The Moth and Me #5

It has been a hectic summer. Between the move (both packing up and getting settled) and a few other personal happenings the months have just flown by. Some things have fallen by the wayside as a result. My moth blog has been one of them, and The Moth and Me, the moth-themed blog carnival, likewise was put on the backburner. I had received no submissions, and lacking the time to actively go out to round up links myself, I’d decided not to worry about getting it done.

New blogger and moth’er Matt Sarver of The Modern Naturalist discovered the moth blog and was excited about the prospect of a blog carnival for moths. Noting that I had missed the deadline I’d indicated for posting the carnival, he offered to pull it together himself this month. I was pleased and grateful to accept his offer. Matt did a great job with The Moth and Me #5, which he is hosting over at his own blog. Make sure you pop over to check out the August edition.

Because I anticipate having less time to devote to the moth blog, and because I think it might foster more interest in the carnival, I’m sending the carnival roaming. Although initially I’d planned to have each edition hosted at the moth blog, I think it makes more sense to invite participants to host the different editions, which would hopefully be mutually beneficial in providing exposure to both the carnival and the hosting blog.

If you’re interested in being a host, it’d be great to have you on board! It’s a fun way to see some new blogs and also learn a bit more about moths. We’re looking for hosts for September (to be posted on or about the 15th), October and November this year, and March next year and beyond. If any of these months appeal to you, send me a note at sanderling [at] symbiotic [dot] ca indicating which month, and providing the name and address of your blog, or leave a comment here.

Happy mothing!

Tay Meadows Tidbit – Clearwing moth

In between rounds at Rock Ridge yesterday I took a stroll back into an area of the forest we don’t normally visit, just to see what I could see. It was later in the morning, and the birds were starting to get quiet, but the insect activity was beginning to pick up. I’d paused atop a rock outcrop, beside a dead tree, to decide where to go next, when I noticed this fabulously coloured wasp low down on the tree. Looking more closely, it wasn’t a wasp at all, but a moth!

Moths in the family Sesiidae are called clearwing moths, and they’re mostly all wasp mimics. As you can see, they do a very good job of it! They are day-fliers, visiting flowers while the sun is up, and are generally uncommon. Only one species regularly comes to lights at night, so they are rarely seen. I considered myself lucky to have stumbled across this one, which appeared to be newly emerged from what looked like half a cocoon tucked into a crack in the bark.

I’m uncertain of the species; I reviewed the plates at the Moth Photographers Group Sesiidae page, but saw no all-dark species with red highlights and long, trailing yellow legs. Some of the clearwings are variable, though, and it may be a variation on one of the species there that’s just not illustrated.

Moths, and me

Virginia Creeper Sphinx, Darapsa myron

I finally got a chance this evening to sit down and put together the June edition of The Moth and Me. For something different, I set it up as a contest. Visit each of the sites, find the name of the moth shown and the country it’s from (or at least, the country of the blog it’s from), email the answers to me, and if you have them all right you’ll be entered into a draw for a $5 Amazon.com gift certificate (or Amazon.ca if you’re Canadian, or Amazon.co.uk if you’re British, or… you get the idea). It’s not a huge sum, but maybe it’ll help you finally decide to buy that book you’ve had your eye on for a while. Mostly, it’s a not-so-subtle attempt to show off just how cool and diverse moths are, and get you to go actually visit some of these sites. :)

Hermit Sphinx, Sphinx eremitus

Here on my own blog, I haven’t posted anything on moths for a little while, there’s just been so much else to write about! So here’s a brief mothing interlude. I’m up well over 200 species identified for the year so far, and there’s no way I could include everything I’ve been seeing. So I thought I would just mention one group of moths that, because of their size and unusual shape, are one of the more eye-catching families of moths. The family is Sphingidae, the Sphinx moths, which includes some 124 species in North America.

One-eyed Sphinx, Smerinthus cerisyi

The most familiar to most people are probably the day-flying hawkmoths, which are often seen hovering at flowers in gardens or meadows. Other people may know the group by their caterpillars, sometimes called hornworms for the long “spike” that protrudes from the tail-end, such as the Tomato Hornworm aka Five-spotted Hawkmoth. However, these two subsets make up only a tiny portion of the sphinx moths.

Modest Sphinx, Pachysphinx modesta

All of the moths in this post are ones that have come to my lights at night so far this spring. With the addition of the Nessus Sphinx that I spotted briefly visiting the dog poop on the driveway, I’m up to 13 species of sphinx. There’s an incredible range of colours, shapes and sizes even within this small bunch of species. The Lettered Sphinx is one of the smallest, at approximately 1.5 inches (4cm) long, and of the ones shown here, the Modest Sphinx is the largest, at nearly the size of my palm.

Small-eyed Sphinx, Paonias myops

The Small-eyed Sphinx is the most colourful, with rich yellows, periwinkle blues and deep maroons. Some of the most unicolored are in the nominate genus Sphinx.

Lettered Sphinx, Deidamia inscripta

There are some that curl their abdomens up, holding their wings above the surface they’re resting on in a very distinct posture: Lettered Sphinx, for instance, or Walnut Sphinx. Abbott’s Sphinx curves its back and curls its wings downwards when at rest; the parallel lines along the trailing edge of the forewing create the fairly convincing impression of broken bark.

Abbott’s Sphinx, Sphecodina abbottii

The sphinx moths are one of the most well-studied groups of moths, simply because their large size, often bright colours and eye-catching shapes and habits make them more interesting than most other groups of moths. Sphinx moths, like silkworm moths, are sometimes raised from caterpillars in captivity, providing information on their life cycle.

Pawpaw Sphinx, Dolba hyloeus

Of course, most of that rearing was for the purpose of then killing and mounting the specimens for private collections. Just like birding with binoculars evolved from the hobby of collecting with a shotgun, so too has mothing with a digital camera evolved from collecting and pinning specimens. Many entomologists still maintain collections, and they do have important uses, but it’s becoming more and more popular simply to record what you’ve found or caught, and then let it go.

Laurel Sphinx, Sphinx kalmiae

The closest I’ve come to encountering a sphinx caterpillar in the wild is the mummified shells I found on the twigs of trees overhanging the lake during the winter. One website hypothesizes that sphinx caterpillars do most of their feeding at night, which would explain why they’re rarely encountered. Another factor is that sphinxes are never around in large numbers the way some things, like tent caterpillars, can be, although Lettered Sphinx can be found in small but moderate numbers in early spring, sometimes with as many as five or six individuals caught in a night.

Walnut Sphinx, Amorpha juglandis

Most other species you’re likely to encounter probably every year, but you may only see one or two over the course of the whole season. For example, the Laurel Sphinx above was a species I caught one of last year, and have only seen once this year so far. Some species have short flight windows, only a couple of months in the summer, but there are others that fly for several months, such as the Northern Apple Sphinx which is on the wing from May through September.

Waved Sphinx, Ceratomia undulosa

The caterpillars of most sphinx moths actually burrow underground to pupate, though a select few might pupate in the loose leaf litter. Depending on their life cycle, some may spend the winter this way, while others may overwinter as eggs.

Blinded Sphinx, Paonias excaecatus (no pupil in the eyespot = blind)

I must admit that I get excited when a sphinx comes in to my light. They’re such striking moths – the charismatic megafauna of the moth world. I’ve illustrated 12 species here, but I expect I’ll still see a few more over the course of the summer.