Showing posts with label Moth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moth. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 July 2020

Backyard Moth Mania

For the past couple of months, I have been "mothing", or looking at moths, in my yard. I have been at this since June 2018, but last July (which is peak time), I really slacked off. I think I was just exhausted after spending a hardcore weekend in Algonquin!

This year there hasn't been much going on (I'm sure its evident why!), so I have been able to set up my sheet and mercury vapour light almost every night, weather depending. I have been having an excellent season so far, with over 370 different species of moths recorded. Just a few nights ago, I actually surpassed 500 species for my all time yard list. At the beginning of the season, my yard list was somewhere around 360 species, so I'd say I've had some great luck.

Here are a few of my highlights!

Walnut Sphinx

Northern Pine Looper

Indented Dichomeris Moth

Peppered Moth

Yellow Slant-Line
Beggar Moth



Blinded Sphinx

Buck's Plume Moth

Yellow-winged Leafroller
Powder Moth



Rose Hooktip

Dimorphic Tosale Moth

Delicate Cycnia

Common Lytrosis

Virginia Creeper Sphinx

Spear-marked Black

Eastern Tent Caterpillar Moth

Olive Angle Shades

Orange-headed Epicallima Moth

Sharp-lined Yellow

Yellow-headed Cutworm

Streaked Ethmia Moth

Red-lined Panopoda

Linden Bark Borer

Minor Grass-Veneer

Thin-lined Owlet

Linden Prominent

Juniper Geometer Moth

Basswood Leafroller

Mottled Prominent

Oblique Heterocampa Moth

Beautiful Wood-Nypmh

Skiff Moth

Cochylis bucera

Black-rimmed Prominent 

Glorious Habrosyne

Western Furcula

Hologram Moth

Eastern Black-headed Budworm Moth

Pandoras Sphinx


This week is National Moth Week, so get out and see some moths!

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In other news, I thought I'd just tack on these ode pictures from North London this week. Spot-winged Glider is a lifer for me, Saffron-winged Meadowhawk is a first Middlesex county record, and Pronghorn Clubtail is always cool.


Spot-winged Glider

Saffron-winged Meadowhawk

Pronghorn Clubtail

Sunday, 14 July 2019

Algonquin Park Moths

Last weekend I went to Algonquin Park with some of my friends. During the day, we focused on finding odonates (dragonflies and damselflies), but once night fell, we turned our attention to a passion shared by all five of us: moths.

We spent two nights in the park, at two different campsites. Canisbay Lake the first night, and Pog Lake the second night. We chose these two campgrounds due to their difference in habitat. Canisbay was largely deciduous, dominated by maples (Acer spp), whereas Pog Lake was largely coniferous, dominated by pines (Pinus spp). Pog Lake also had some nice understory with plenty of honeysuckles and Beaked Hazelnut (Corylus cornuta), as well as many ferns.

If I had to guess, we had over 200 species of moths over the two nights. Here is a selection of photos of some of the more charismatic species we encountered.

Rosy Maple Moth

Mottled Snout

Bent-lined Gray

Wavy Chestnut Y

Chocolate Prominent

Walnut Sphinx

Northern Pine Looper

Eastern Panthea 

White-dotted Prominent

Modest Sphinx

Yellow-shouldered Slug Moth

Yellow-necked Caterpillar Moth

Putnam's Looper

Laurel Sphinx

Little Virgin Tiger Moth

Fragile Dagger

Luna Moth

Black Zigzag

Twin-spotted Sphinx

Harris's Three-spot

Blinded Sphinx

Northern Apple Sphinx

Rose Hooktip

Waved Sphinx

Cecropia Moth

Polyphemus Moth

Orange-barred Carpet

Silver-spotted Fern Moth