Batman

When I first noticed this moth on my mothing sheet, I was not quite sure where to place it as it did not seem to match any of the typical shapes I associate with moth families. Whether by skill or luck, I guessed that it might be a Tortricid, a member of a large and diverse family of micromoths. After flipping through a dozen or so plate pages on the Moth Photographers Group, I found my moth among the Sparganothidini.

Unlike macromoths, many micromoths have unimaginative English names, if they have an English name at all. This species breaks from that pattern with the name The Batman Moth (Coelostathma discopunctana). BugGuide says little about the species, so I am not sure of its habits or how such a plain-looking moth got such a colorful name. As far as I can tell, this Batman has no Robin in the realm of moths, but there is a Joker.