Thursday, July 30, 2009

Assorted Recent Moths

These are a few moths that I found recently. I see many moths, but rarely get the opportunity to photograph them, either because I do not have my camera at the time or because they flutter away too quickly. The first was easy to photograph because it was dead. This is an Indian Meal Moth (Plodia interpunctella), which I found in my bathroom.

You might notice a bit of distortion in the image. That is a result of shooting with my point & shoot through a Gepe slide viewing loupe. (I guess that would be digilouping.) This moth is less than 10mm long, so my camera's zoom and macro function were not up to the job on their own. The loupe basically acted as a substitute macro lens.

The second is a Dot-lined Wave (Idaea tacturata). I found this about a month ago, on the same day I took these milkweed photos. It was flying among the vegetation along the Raritan River's bank.

Unlike the last two, the last is not an adult but a caterpillar. This is a Sycamore Tussock Moth (Halysidota harrisii), which I photographed under the shade of a London Plane.

It seems that most people encounter this species as a caterpillar rather than an adult moth because BugGuide lacks any photos of adults.

Special thanks to the marvelous Seabrooke Leckie for her assistance in identifying the first two species.