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.
Tag: lepidoptera
Southern Emerald Moth
The delightful, (1/2″ wide) Synchlora frondaria is most notable for its larvae, tiny caterpillars which disguise themselves by “gluing” pieces of plants and flowers to themselves so they look like debris. (From this behavior comes the common name “camouflaged looper”, since the caterpillars are “looper” caterpillars which form loops with their body (like all inchworms)…
Pink-striped Oakworm Moth
This fuzzy little pink-to-orange silk moth of the family Saturniidae is found across Canada and the US. The females are larger (maybe an inch and a half long); the males have large transparent spots on their wings. Both sexes have the little white spot on each wing. In Florida, these guys reproduce year round. Males…
Ailanthus Webworm Moth
This tiny (1 cm) day-flying moth is actually native to Florida (so it’s funny I found this one in Indiana). The moth’s larvae used to live almost exclusively on the paradise tree (Simarouba glauca) in Florida, but when the “tree of heaven” (Ailanthus altissima) was introduced to the US from China, the ailanthus webworm moth…
Julia Butterfly
Dryas iulia (often incorrectly spelled julia) is also known as the Julia butterfly, Julia heliconian, the flame, or flambeau. It is the sole member of the genus Dryas, native from Brazil to the southern United States. There are more than 15 described subspecies. Approximately 80-90 mm across, its elongated wings are primarily orange with black…
Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillar
I got all excited, thinking this was a monarch butterfly, but no, it’s a (still gorgeous) impostor — the caterpillar of the eastern black swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polyxenes). The monarch caterpillar has long “antennae” or tendrils on both ends; the swallowtail lacks these appendages. The eastern swallowtail is known by a variety of other names,…
Saltmarsh Moth Caterpillar
This little fellow is (very probably) a Saltmarsh Moth caterpillar (Estigmene acrea), but again this is one of those “identifications” wherein this could also be any one of a number of closely related species. Below, an earlier instar salt marsh moth caterpillar does an amazing yoga pose: The just-hatched caterpillars are mostly yellow, with little…