This darling little bagworm moth (whose juveniles and their debris-covered cases are scattered liberally across the sides of my house) is Acrolophus walsinghami. The dark “W” shape on the forewing is “distinctive”, but not definitive — the coloration of the moth is pretty variable, so we’d have to take these poor little things apart in…
Tag: Tineidae
Grass Tubeworm Moth
Another in the unexpectedly immense category of “little brown moths”, Acrolophus arcanella has some neat geometric patterns and — well, I’m sure that real entomologists don’t call it a “pompadour”, but it’s a neat little lion’s mane of fluffy scales on the back of the head and “shoulders”. The name Acrolophus actually comes from the…
Casemaking Clothes Moth
To get a sense of how tiny this moth is, it’s sitting on my window screen. The whole moth is perhaps 3mm long. The casemaking clothes moth gets its common name from its behavior — its larvae, which look like regular caterpillars, form flattened cases for themselves out of whatever’s handy, and primarily eat fibrous…
Hawaiian Dancing Moth
This molecular moth was only about 3mm long. I wouldn’t have even known it was alive if it hadn’t actually flown up and perched right in front of my camera. I managed two shots, wondering what on earth it was, before it flew off. Just sitting on a surface, it looks like a tiny fleck…
Heppner’s Grass Tubeworm Moth
Trust me when I say that “little brown moth” is not a taxonomic rabbit hole you want to go down. This is Acrolophus heppneri, Heppner’s grass tubeworm moth, about 8mm long and with a whopping four whole sentences in its Wikipedia page. The weird little “cowlick” visible on its right side is apparently characteristic.