Tag: lepidoptera

britsnana2:

7/16/15                Absolutely  Gorgeous !!!!!!!

Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
No Taxon  (Moths)
Superfamily Bombycoidea
Family Sphingidae (Sphinx Moths)
Subfamily Macroglossinae
Tribe Macroglossini
Genus Eumorpha
Species pandorus (Pandorus Sphinx – Hodges#7859) 

Hodges Number 7859
Other Common Names Pandora Sphinx
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes First described in 1806 by Jacob Hübner as Daphnis pandorus
Eumorpha pandorus
Explanation of Names Greek pandoros (πανδωρος) can mean either “giving all” or “given all”. The name Pandora (πανδωρα) is the feminine form of this word.
Size Wingspan 87-115 mm
Identification Adult:
forewing olive green with darker green apical patch and border along
inner margin, broken near anal angle; pink streaks near middle of wing
and at inner margin; double black discal spot; hindwing whitish basally,
green distally, with two large black patches, and some pink at anal
angle
[adapted from description by Charles Covell]

Larva: body bright green or reddish-brown
with swollen third thoracic segment into which head and first 2
thoracic segments can be drawn; abdomen with small white to yellow spot
on segment 2 and large oval spots around spiracle on third to seventh
segments; whiplike horn of early instars replaced with button in last
stage; thorax and anterior abdominal segments with dorsal black spotting
[adapted from description by David Wagner and Valerie Giles]
Range Eastern United States (Maine to Florida, west to Texas, north to Nebraska and Wisconsin) plus Ontario and Nova Scotia
Season adults fly from May to October
larvae present from June to November
Food Larvae feed on leaves of peppervine (Ampelopsis spp.), grape (Vitis spp.), and Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).
Life Cycle one generation per year in the north; two generations in the south
Remarks An extra-spectacular sphinx moth.

Source: britsnana2

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.

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

coolbugs:

Bug of the Day

Ok, this is one off the bucket list. Never had a Polyphemus moth at the light in my yard. Well, had a couple over the past 10 years but they always fluttered around and then took off before they settled down. Last night this beauty was sitting *on* the light when I went out to check it, and patiently posed on my finger for some glamour shots. SOOOOO AWESOME!