The White-speck (10438)

Mythimna unipuncta

Family Noctuidae, subfamily Noctuinae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

4 July 2012

Goshen

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Distribution map

Pat Sutton emailed me yesterday with pictures of moths from her garden. Though I had visited there many times to ogle lepidopterans, those visits had all been diurnal and had been aimed at butterflies, and the two or three wonderful day-flying species of sphinx moths that are regularly attracted to the Suttons' incredible backyard garden. One of the attractants of that garden are four terra cotta trays full of rotting fruit that Red-spotted Purples and a number of other butterfly species love. Well, it seems that Pat and Clay had gone out the previous evening to see what moths might be attracted to same. Yowzer; were there ever moths!

Josh Nemeth and I invited ourselves over on the evening of Independence Day in order to see the spectacle for ourselves. We were not disappointed!

[Yours truly and Josh check out feasting moths at the Sutton residence.

Photo copyright by Pat Sutton.]

 [One of the other trays hosts a large number and goodly variety of moths, including (but not limited to) The White-speck, Ultronia Underwing, a few members of one or more Idia species, and Lunate Zale. Photograph by Tony Leukering.]

In Pat's pictures from the 3rd and in the above from the 4th, our essay focus species, The White-speck, was, far and away, the most numerous species present, usually outnumbering all other species combined. This is not all that surprising, as its caterpillars feed on grasses and other cereal grains, though little of the latter are available in Cape May County.  Grass, however, is.

The species is a widespread inhabitant of the U. S. and Canada, with the large holes in the range map probably being due to lack of sampling, not lack of occurrence. Though the species is not colorful, nor striking, it is fairly distinctive in a very large family with large numbers of similar-looking species. The species' relatively distinctive feature -- the white speck at the inner edge of the reniform spot -- rules out nearly all species, save for a few other species of wainscot, but the ruddiness of most individuals does the job in that case.

Thanks, Clay and Pat, for your hospitality!

Waterlily Borer (4751)

Elophila gyralis

Family Crambidae, subfamily Acentropinae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

30 June 2012

Cape May Point

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Distribution map

We return to the Crambidae, a large and varied family of microleps, to visit another subfamily. The Acentropinae has the common name of "Aquatic Crambids" due to the fact that most species's hosts are aquatic plants, as one might have guessed by the name of this essay's subject species. I don't know how they manage, as there is little readily available on the subfamily's habits and ecologies, but they obviously do so. Many members of the subfamily have distinctive wing patterns and, for crambids, are relatively easily identified. Once you know that they are crambids. Quite a few are delta-winged, like our subject and are readily confused with members of other families (particularly macrolep families), while others hold their wings out like geometrids.

As can quickly be determined by a glance at the distribution map (as of the writing of this essay), this wee beastie represents yet another first state record, though one not at all unanticipated due to its widespread distribution in eastern and central U. S. The location at which this individual was photographed is about equidistant between Lake Lily and the water bodies of Cape May Point S. P., and that distance is not very long at all, so it's no surprise that Waterlily Borer showed up at the Davis house in Cape May Point.

Celery Looper (8924)

Anagrapha falcifera

Family Noctuidae, subfamily Plusiinae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

20 April 2012

Lizardtail Sanctuary powerline cut

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Distribution map

As Mike Crewe has pointed out on numerous occasions, the "loopers" of the Noctuidae are not. "Looper" is a term coined for caterpillars of the members of the Geometridae, and also known as "inchworms" or "measuring worms;" noctuid caterpillars are not at all similar. Most of the noctuid loopers are species of open country, with quite a few being crop pests and named after those crops (e.g., celery, clover, and soybean).

Most of these moths are quite attractive, with many having distinctively-shaped silver stigmata (singular, "stigma") on the forewings. These stigmata are distinctive enough that if an unknown moth sports such, one can probably start among the Plusiinae with fair expectation of finding the ID solution there. The stigma of Celery Looper creates a silvery tip to a long, arching strip of white that juts into the dark of the inner portion of the wing. This is one of the few strongly diurnal members of the Noctuidae (which is, obviously, named for the night!), and it can be found nearly throughout the county in old fields and powerline cuts. While the species' caterpillar does eat celery, locally it is probably primarily attracted to clover, corn, and dandelions. The individual pictured here was my lifer and another picture of the same critter is provided below.

Chalky Wave (7158)

Scopula purata

Family Geometridae, subfamily Sterrhirnae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

10 June 2012

Steelmantown bog

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Distribution map

Like Horned Spanworm, Chalky Wave is a geometer, readily discerned as such by its spread-wing posture at rest. Though it may not appear so in this picture due to the strong focus on the moth, when I found it, I initially passed it off as a bird dropping. Fortunately, I looked closer! Even a quick glance at the distribution map will provide the information that the species seems to have a strong coastal-plain affinity. Whether this apparent affinity is real or just an artifact of poor sampling -- and the few number of locations might well indicate that -- is unknown. However, given the few records, even on the heavily human-populated East Coast, I suspect that the species is probably tied to some rarish host-plant species. Given that we apparently do not know what that host plant is and that none of the usual picture sources (Bug Guide, BAMONA, and MPG) have a photograph of the caterpillar, I think that my hunch may be correct.

Another feature of this picture is that, upon finding the beast, I rummaged through Beadle and Leckie and found a depiction that looked very similar. Yet, when I posted this picture on my Flickr site, another Flickr member suggested that it was not, in fact, Large Lace-border, the species in the field guide that I had picked as the ID of this moth. I found that, going through MPG, that person was correct and it was confirmed as correct on Bug Guide. So, yet another lesson learned. Again. (Is that really "learned," then?) Just because something in the moth field guide looks quite close, check all of the resources available, because the field guide(s) cannot possibly cover all of the possibilities and all of the variations within those possibilities when dealing with moths.

Arge Tiger (8199)

Grammia arge

Family Erebidae, subfamily Arctiinae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

22 June 2012

West Cape May

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Distribution map

The tiger moths are another of my favorite groups, again because of the family's relatively conservative shape that makes most species immediately identifiable to the group. Additionally, many tigers have distinctive, pleasing, and/or interesting forewing patterns. Many species have hairy, furry, or wooly caterpillars that get them distinctive names of their own. Tigers have a strong following among moth-ers, as exemplified by the fact that of the ridiculously low number of moth species recorded in the county before I and, particularly, Mike Crewe started working on them here (63), nearly one-sixth (10) are tigers, including Arge Tiger. As a brief aside, most of the rest of those 63 species are of two families: silk moths (Saturniidae, 14 species) and sphinx moths (Sphingidae 32 species)! In fact, only  one other family is represented, the Notodontidae (prominents).

Arge Tiger is one of the striped species that are particularly appreciated by moth-ers. Unlike most of them, however, Arge sports hindwings that are primarily pale, with some dark spotting; most have colorful hindwings, dominated by reds and yellows with contrasting bits of black. I would provide a link to a picture of the caterpillar of the species, but neither the MPG nor BAMONA pages have one as of the writing of this essay.

The individual subject of this essay was captured by Mike in his moth trap a few nights ago. I got to help go through the hundreds of moths (and hundreds of a large variety of other arthropod beasties) the next morning, when I took the above photo. Mike, who has spent a lot of time mothing in the U.K., particularly in Norfolk (for which see the incredible Norfolk moth site; here is a link to a species page), so knows oodles more than do I about moths. When he runs the trap, he endeavors to keep track of counts of every species. As he's relatively new to our moths, he keeps various ID references handy. Though I don't think that his tally is complete from that night, the last I heard, the species list was up to 75!  [28 July 2012 addendum:  The final tally from that night was 91 species!]

[A scene from the Crewe residence on the morning of 22 June 2012 with the new Beadle and Leckie field guide, a three-ring binder with -- apparently -- every plate from the MPG site printed, and the day's tally of common species from the trap. As with all photos on the site, click on the image to see a larger version.]

Epione Underwing (8773)

Catocala epione

Family Erebidae, subfamily Erebinae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

26 June 2012

Woods Road "square-doughnut field" (nw. corner of county)

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Distribution map

The lovely beast that is the subject of this post, one of the larger underwing species, was found by Mike Crewe as we (along with Megan Crewe) were wandering in the northwest corner of the county today. As can be seen from the distribution map on the MPG site (that is, if you check on the map sometime before it gets this record added to it), you can see that the species was previously unknown from most of New Jersey.

The underwings are a favorite among moth-ers (I guess that we need that hyphen in there!) and collectors, probably due to many species' striking hindwing color and pattern and their exquisite forewing patterns. Ebione Underwing may have amongst the most exquisite of the latter. As noted in the Io Moth essay, those underwings with bright hindwing patterns probably use them as a startle feature. This underwing, however, does not have a hindwing with yellow, orange, or red and I know not whether they are a startling species. In the above picture, we can just see a bit of bright white border on what might be a black hindwing. Fortunately, before the beastie arranged itself in this posture on the trunk of a Pitch Pine, it was perched in a more-revealing pose (below), one that allows us to see that, indeed, the hindwings are mostly black.

Maple Callus Borer (2554)

Synanthedon acerni

Family Sesiidae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

20 June 2012

Belleplain State Forest HQ

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Distribution map

The family Sesiidae, the Clearwing Borers, is an interesting moth family, members of which are often mistaken for hymenopterans (bees, wasps), which is, of course, the idea. They are primarily day-flying species, though this post's subject is the only such species that somewhat regularly comes to lights at night. As indicated by both the species' common and species names, the larvae consume maple. However, they do not eat leaves, but wood, boring into twigs, roots, branches, and trunks. The quite-similar-looking species Red Maple Borer (2546) has a more extensive black forewing tip and only one black patch on the interior of the forewing. And it does not come to lights at night. The various species of the family are difficult to locate, despite being diurnal beasts. Careful scrutiny of larger flowering plants, such as Joe-pyeweed, dogbane, and milkweed, may reveal their presence.