Tag: bugs

northwestnaturalist:

Drepana arcuata “Arched Hooktip Moth” Drepanidae

Clinton, MT
July 25, 2015
Robert Niese

Here’s another moth we spotted during our Mothlighting event for

National Moth Week with the Missoula Butterfly House. These moths are positively unmistakable! In our area there are no other moths that pull-off the “I’m a dead leaf” look quite as well as the Hooktips. The PNW is home to two species of Hooktip moths – D. arcuata and D. bilineata (which, as its name suggests, has two lines instead of one). As larva, Hooktip moths feed on the leaves of Alder and Birch trees where they hide inside folded leaves.

Source: northwestnaturalist

zooophagous:

The butterfly watcher’s dilemma- when you get a photo of every possible butterfly EXCEPT a monarch! I still have some summer left to snag one though, wish me luck. These consolation prizes ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at.

When I was a small child I was obsessed with drawing butterflies. Little did I know I’d be obsessed with catching them on camera two decades later. I guess there’s just something special about them.

speciesofleastconcern:

280 days of Urbpandemonium #133

Another day another huge scary and of course harmless insect. The patterned wings and large size of the tiger bee fly Xenox tigrinus* suggest perhaps a horse fly. This one has been displaying some aggressive behavior as well–it’s lucky it chose the porch of two bug-lovers to defend. Despite everything, these are beneficial insects that lay their eggs in the nests of carpenter bees, which provides their maggots with bee grubs to eat.

* “Alien tiger”

Source: speciesofleastconcern

typhlonectes:

Avoiding Predation by Bats:  A Tale of Two Moths

by William E. Conner

In their

recent paper


in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A.,
Kawahara and Barber describe sonar-jamming signals in a charismatic
group of moths called hawkmoths (in the order Lepidoptera, family
Sphingidae). Using behavioral methods, they showed that hawkmoths
produce sound by rubbing specialized scales on their genitalia across a
filelike structure on their abdomens, in a process called stridulation. (See videos

here.)

But there are apparently other ways to thwart bat attacks as well. A group led by the same research team

studied


a second charismatic group of moths, the Saturnidae, or silkmoths
(including the well-known luna moth, as shown above). As far as we know
these large moths do not hear or produce sound, but many sport long,
flowing hindwing tails that flutter in the breeze as they fly. The
fluttering tails are irresistible to echolocating bats, diverting their
attack away from the moth’s vulnerable body and toward the expendable
tails…

(read more: American Scientist)

photographs: T – Luna Moth by James St. John; B – Hawk Moth (Ambulyx pryeri) by Alexey

Source: typhlonectes