There are times I wish I could be a fly on the wall at whatever entomologists’ meeting spawned an insect’s unusual name. This is one such time. I would love to hear the story behind the common name of the “exasperating platynota moth”, Platynota exasperatana. It’s the only notable name in a family full of…
Tag: moth
Ornate Bella Moth
The most common name for this moth (Utetheisa ornatrix) seems to be the ornate bella moth, but my favorite is “rattlebox moth”. Apparently there’s a whole family of plants (Crotalaria) which produce seed pods that rattle if shaken, and this little moth loves to eat them. Crotalaria contain alkaloids which make the moths, and their…
Acorn Moth (Blastobasis sp.)
When it comes to miniature (~5mm long, in this case, or 15mm across the open wings) mottled gray and white moths, identification can be tricky. I would have to get very invasive indeed to really, positively identify this little moth — bugguide mentions that “the only sure way to identify this and most other Blastobasidae…
Dot-lined White Moth
I regret that I do not (yet) have any photos of the adult moth (Artace cribrarius), mostly because it strongly resembles a stuffed animal, but please enjoy these fascinating pictures of the A. cribrarius caterpillar, a very well-camouflaged caterpillar which appears to resemble the bark of a birch tree, complete with nifty “fringe of sublateral…
Ambiguous Moth
The ambiguous moth! This delightfully-named little moth may well become my spirit animal. About 2cm across, this tiny brown moth, resembling a very small leaf with a rhinoceros horn, is in the family Erebdiae, the litter moths. Litter moths are named because many of their caterpillars feed on dead plant matter. Adults come in a…
Southern Armyworm Moth
This tiny (8mm) little friend was making him/herself at home on one of my baby sunflowers, and unfortunately had to be (humanely) relocated to other green stuff a distance away. Southern armyworm caterpillars are blackish green to green with a uniform light brown or orange head; otherwise they are quite variable in appearance. There is…
Coffee-Loving Pyrausta Moth
This red and gold crambid moth has some individual variation to its gold-stripes-on-red pattern, but I find most of them look a lot like a smiling jack-o-lantern! You can probably guess by the common name, coffee-loving pyrausta moth, what the larvae of this moth enjoy eating most — wild coffee, Psychotria nervosa. Pyrausta tyralis lives…
Forest Tent Caterpillar Moth
A cousin to the eastern tent caterpillar, the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) doesn’t actually make tents; instead, it constructs silken mats along tree trunks and branches. Like its cousin, however, it also congregates in large numbers and the mats can be just as unsightly and large as the tents. The caterpillars are harmless to…
Drab Brown Wave Moth
If you squint, you can just about see the concentric lines on this moth’s wings which sort of resemble waves lapping at a sandy beach. Other “wave moths” have much more distinct waves-on-a-beach markings — it’s just my luck I found the only one that looks like cookies ‘n’ cream. The drab brown wave moth…
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…
Cypress Emerald Moth
The moth family Geometridae has a number of brilliant little bright green moths in it, not even all in the same genus. To make things weirder, the cypress emerald moth (Nemoria elfa) also comes in a red or brownish flavor, which appears to be seasonal to cooler weather. Adults are approximately 9-12mm across, with females…
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…
Yellow Mocis
Moths in the genus Mocis are generally medium-sized (about 26mm across), and yellowish with closely related spot patterns. There are five such moths in North America, all in the southeastern US, more or less. The range of the yellow mocis is roughly from the east coast of Texas, all along the Gulf coast, through to…
Spurge Spanworm Caterpillar (and Predator)
This spurge spanworm caterpillar (Oxydia vesulia) is expertly camouflaged as a stick, but that did not do it much good against the nest of tiny scorpions it happened to wander over. I saw the caterpillar on the wood and took a photo of it — and only saw the suspicious, grasping claws after enlarging the…
Yellow-Striped Armyworm Moth
As far as I can tell, this individual was taking a drink out of a tiny puddle on an overturned flowerpot. Its forefeet were not even breaking the surface tension; and, when I checked by later, it had flown safely away. The yellow-striped armyworm moth, which has the enchanting Latin name Spodoptera ornithogalli, is a…
Carpet-Grass Webworm Moth
This handsome little fellow is demonstrating a “downward dog” position. The carpet-grass webworm moth (Fissicrambus haytiellus) is a nondescript moth in the family Crambidae, which includes grass moths. “Grass moths” fold themselves up like the photo above when at rest to blend in with grass stems. (It does not work as well when the moth…