Backyard Moths

On Wednesday night, I ran my UV black light in the backyard for a few hours. Insect activity at the sheet was fairly subdued. I got a lot of the expected midges and may beetles, but not a lot of moths. Here are a few that did show up. Above is a Common Idia, appropriate enough one of the most common moths in my backyard.

This is a Florida Tetanolita, another common moth that I have seen repeatedly in the backyard.

This may be my first record of Faint-spotted Palthis in the backyard. I am not entirely sure of that, though, since I still have a lot of unidentified moths from last summer. These three are all owlet moths, in family Erebidae, subfamily Herminiinae. This subfamily contains numerous moth species that feed on leaf litter in their larval stages. As adults, they spend a lot of time on the ground, so you might flush them as you walk through grass or dead leaves.

This green and brown moth is a Bee Moth, a pyralid.

Finally, this Suzuki's Promolactis Moth is very tiny but very colorful under magnification.