Review: Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America

The Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America is not the only identification guide for eastern moths to be published recently. At the end of last year, Princeton University Press issued a mammoth volume on eastern owlet moth caterpillars. Readers may be familiar with the excellent Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner, which includes caterpillars of common moth and butterfly species. The same author has teamed with David F. Schweitzer, J. Bolling Sullivan, and Richard C. Reardon to produce Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America.

This book treats 815 moth species from the superfamily Noctuoidea. This is one of the most diverse insect superfamilies, with over 75,000 species recorded worldwide (and probably many more not yet discovered). Of the species treated in the book, 726 species are illustrated while 89 are only described; of the illustrated species, 372 receive full accounts while 354 are given brief treatment that includes their host plants and how to identify them. Many of the full accounts are reproduced Caterpillars of Eastern North America, with updates or corrections where necessary.

Full accounts include photos of pinned and living adult moths in addition to the caterpillar. They may include multiple caterpillar images for species with a high degree of variation. The photographs are superb and reproduced at a high resolution suitable for illustrating significant markings and body structures. Since this volume was originally intended to appear in the Forest Service's FHTET publication series, the accounts include information on the economic significance of each species. The accounts are based on years of research by the four authors and include previously unpublished data about host plants and life cycles. An introduction covers the basics of moth taxonomy and life cycles and includes notes on collecting and rearing caterpillars.

Those with a serious interest in moths, whether on an amateur or professional basis will want a copy of
Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Gardeners and land managers may likewise find the book useful for identifying potential pest species. Readers with a more general interest will probably be satisfied with the coverage in Caterpillars of Eastern North America but may be interested in the additional coverage and photographs.

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This review was based on a review copy provided by the publisher.

Beardtongue

One of the distinctive wildflowers blooming now is beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis). Native to eastern North America, these plants can grow up to about waist height and have clusters of tubular white flowers. The plant is named for the long, bristled stamen that protrudes from the opening of each flower, which has the appearance of a hairy tongue.

Beardtongue is one of several Penstemon species recommended for pollinator-friendly gardens by the Xerces Society. (I reviewed their book, Attracting Native Pollinators, last summer.) When I was photographing these flowers, I noticed that several where visited by small insects that would crawl deep inside the flowers to get at the nectar. I think this may be a sweat bee since it is not very hairy and it has a glossy bluish-green body, but a few other groups could fit that description. I any case it is probably one of the many native bee species.

Review: Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America

A long-awaited update to Charles Covell's Moths of Eastern North America is finally in print this spring. Moths are among the most diverse insect groups – over 11,000 species have been catalogued in North America alone. They also play an important role in ecosystems, as pollinators for many plants and as food for birds, bats, and other animals. Yet their nocturnal habits and poor reputation as pests keeps them from being better appreciated. In fact, very little is known about many moth species – in some cases even basic information like their range or larval hosts. Among more popular groups like birds and butterflies, this sort of information is often collected by amateur observers, who supplement the work of scientists. David Beadle and Seabrooke Leckie hope to encourage a new generation of moth observers with their new guide, the Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America.

The new guide covers nearly 1,500 moths found in the northeast, roughly from Minnesota and Missouri east to Virginia and the maritime provinces. Of these, about two-thirds to three-quarters are macromoths, and the rest are micromoths. These 1,500 moths are the ones most likely to be encountered, especially at a light trap or sugar bait. The increased coverage of micromoths compared to existing guides is especially welcome. At my UV light, I see far more micromoths than macromoths, and it usually takes me a long time to identify them. One moth I was surprised to see omitted is the Indian-meal Moth – the moth most likely to infest a pantry – which has a very distinctive adult form.

The new guide uses the format familiar from other recent Peterson guides: plates on the right page and descriptive text on the facing page. The text includes the Hodges number (and MPG number for noctuoids), size, a succinct description, host plants (if known), and range. The species accounts include a range map for most macromoths but not for micromoths, which I believe is a first among moth guides. Unfortunately sufficient data does not exist to produce a range map for many species. The accounts also include a tricolored bar to indicate approximate flight periods. When I first flipped through the guide, the bar's meaning was not obvious to me, but it is explained in the introduction. The guide is illustrated with photographs that have been digitally edited to remove the moths from their backgrounds. Many of the photos are by the authors, but they also drew on other photographers to supply images. The photographs are of excellent quality, and the color is true to life, as far as I can see. The plates show the moths as they appear in life rather than as mounted specimens, which is a major improvement over Covell's guide for identifying moths in the wild or at light traps.

I sense some possible influence from Kenn Kaufman's excellent series of field guides here, and not only in the use of digitally-edited photographs. One feature of Kaufman's butterfly and insect guides that I really like is the inclusion of a silhouette showing the actual size of one species on each page, with the all the species on the same page scaled relative to that species. This feature helps especially with identifying very small insects such as micromoths. It helps to have a visual sense of how small they are but also have the illustrations large enough to see the detailed markings on the wings.

The new Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America is the best English-language* resource currently in print for the region it covers. If you are interested in identifying moths in northeastern North America, this is the book to use. (Moths of Western North America is available for that region.) Since obtaining a copy, I have already used it to identify several moths. I must say that having a book in my hand makes a huge difference when I am trying to find a familiar-looking but unknown moth. It is much faster (and less strain for my laptop) than browsing through the plates at the Moth Photographers Group (though that website is excellent). It should make identifying moths at my UV light and active participation in projects like National Moth Week much easier.

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This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher. I have corresponded with one of the authors, Seabrooke Leckie, for help with moth identifications on a few occasions.

*  I have not seen a copy of Louis Handfield's French-language Guide des Papillons du Québec (published by Broquet) to do a proper comparison between the two guides.

Bird's-foot Trefoil

Like the False Indigo-Bush I posted yesterday, the Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) is a member of the legume family (Fabaceae). However, it has a more typical flower, with a flag and keel. I found this plant in the same location as the False Indigo-Bush. Its yellow flowers are tiny; I doubt the flower head was more than 8 inches off the ground. The plant is native to Eurasia and North Africa but became naturalized in North America and is considered invasive in some locations. It is often grown agriculturally as a forage crop since it withstands regular browsing better than clover or alfalfa.

The name comes from the three leaflets at the tip of each compound leaf, which are thought to resemble a bird's foot.

False Indigo Bush

A few days ago, when I was walking through one of my local birding spots, I noticed some medium-sized shrubs with compound leaves. What stood out most were the spikes of dark purple flowers at the tip of each of the branches. Despite the showy flowers, I could not remember having seen these plants before. After taking photos and searching through some plant references, I came up with a name: False Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa), also known as Desert False Indigo. Since finding this patch, I have been seeing false indigo all over the place, which makes me wonder how I had ever missed them.

When I saw the compound leaves, I guessed that the shrub probably probably belonged to the legume family (Fabaceae), which turned out to be correct. (Legumes are not the only plants with compound leaves, but something about the smooth leaflets reminded me of other legumes, especially locust trees.) Shrubs in the genus Amorpha are unusual in having flowers with only one petal, curled into a tube out of which the reproductive parts emerge. A standard pea flower looks more like this, with a banner, keel, and sometimes wings. The single petal of an Amorpha flower is the reason for the genus name; it means "formless" or "deformed" in Greek.

False Indigo Bush is adaptable to different soil types and grows quickly. While it is native to North America, it is considered weedy or invasive in the northeastern and northwestern parts of its range, where it probably spread through escapes from cultivation. However, it does provide food to many insects, as foraging habitat for native bees such as mining bees and sweat bees and as a larval host plant for Silver-spotted Skipper, Southern Dogface, and other butterflies and moths.