Black-Winged Dahana

The black-winged dahana, Dahana atripennis, is an inch-long, primarily black moth with a red abdomen, orange head, iridescent blue thorax, and two yellow stripes on its black wings. As far as I can tell from photos on bugguide.net, both sexes have those long, attractive, black feathered antennae (or all photos on bigguide.net are of males!). It is the only representative of its genus in the U.S., and is native to Florida and Georgia. It can be found year-round.

Black-winged dahana are diurnal. The larval stage eats spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides).

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