Southern Flannel (4647)

Megalopyge (Lagoa) opercularis

Family Megalopygidae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

17 June 2012

near Green Creek

CMMP block Q06
Distribution map

Though I have already treated a very close cousin of this post's subject, there are two reasons that I return to the Megalopygidae's type genus. The first is because these things are just too darned cute! I'll get to the second shortly. The other night I was sitting around in my house and got a wild hare to go check lighted signs for moths, because I did not feel like driving all the way up to Belleplain State Forest, my usual mothing destination. I also wanted to spread my effort around the county, as Mike Crewe and I are attempting to do an extensive atlas or mapping project for the county. So, I drove to Cape May Court House and back, visiting a bunch of lighted signs, some of which had few moths and none of which had anything like overwhelming numbers of moths.

I found this flannel at my very first stop, the King Nummy Campground along Hwy 47. In fact, it was the first moth that I photographed that night! Because I had recorded no moth species for the block (Q06), I photographed it to remind me to record it. And, of course, because flannels are just too darned cute! Upon going through my pictures at home the next morning, I noticed that the beast did not look quite like Black-waved Flannel, which is the only species of such that I had identified here. The color on the upper part of the wings was darker, ruddier, with a distinct yellow semi-collar. The pattern near the wing margins was also not quite right. Finally, it has much more extensive black on the legs than does Black-waved. I knew that Southern Flannel's range got into Maryland, but I didn't think that the species reached New Jersey. So, I checked the MPG site and, yowzer (!), that was the correct ID and the species was unknown from north and east of Maryland! Woo-hoo, first state record!

Of course, when mothing, it's fairly easy to find first state records, because we know them so poorly. Mike Crewe has garnered a host of first NJ moth records, but this was the first that I'd found, that I knew of. Recently, though, I have been checking the MPG site more for occurrence data than solely for ID help, and note that my extensive set of moth pictures from this spring includes quite a number of "first" NJ records (though Mike has, undoubtedly, already scored a few of those). But, hey, flannels are cute and this one was my first state first, hence the blog post.

News Flash Addendum!

Mike Crewe and I independently found Southern Flannels much farther north in the county, both finding them at the Belleplain State Forest HQ (block F09), Mike with six there on 24 June, and I found five there on 25 June (pic below). I may have to go look for the species in Cumberland and/or Atlantic counties!