3 more moths from Rio
December 5, 2009
Dear WTB
Here are three more ID queries from my Brazilian photo collection.
The first is a big female Eacles, but I can’t match it up to a species.
The second is a mystery – I can’t even place it in a family. About 3cm long.
Number three is a strange hook-tipped moth that I think may be a saturnid of some sort, but I can’t find anything close online. A bit over 2 cm long.
I also used to get the Black Witch moths that you feature every year, only we had them in January and February, before they head north. I even managed to breed them on one occasion – spectacular caterpillars.
Any pointers you can give on the above would be gratefully received.
Thanks
Nick P
SE Brazil, Rio de Janeiro
Eacles imperialis magnifica
Hi Nick,
Our best resource for identifying Saturniid Moths is the World’s Largest Saturniidae Site that is a membership website. We have gone through hundred of images of Giant Silk Moths from Brazil and we believe we can identify two of your specimens. The female Eacles is possibly Eacles imperialis cacicus, and we found a link to a Saturniidae Breeder website that has an image of a pair for comparison. The hook-tipped moth proved to be somewhat elusive, but we feel we found a close match in a male Hylesia nanus, though it may be a closely related species. We then located an additional image of it on the Moths of Guyana website. It is a mounted specimen, but it looks quite similar to your live specimen. The third moth we believe is a Sphinx Moth and we will continue to research and post it separately. We will try to contact Bill Oehlke to see if he agrees with these two Saturniidae identifications.
Hylesia nanus
Slight correction to subspecies from Bill Oehlke
Daniel,
I would go with
Eacles imperialis magnifica from Rio de Janeiro and
Hylesia nanus from Rio de Janeiro
Please ask your source to contact me as there are many Saturniidae of great interest to me from Rio de Janiero. I can probalby also id the Sphingidae if you/he want to send it along.
Bill Oehlke
Hi Daniel
Thanks very much for the very prompt reply and the IDs. The two links are also much appreciated – I had not found the Guyana one before, possibly because it is in French! but the collection of photos is excellent. I have already got a lead on one of the other pics I submitted (the black moth with larva in my previous message) which looks to be an Arctiid, a Ctenuchinid, possibly of the genus Ptychotrichos based on similar wing pattern.
I have already emailed Bill back and hopefully can send him some images for his site.
Many thanks
Nick
1
¶ Posted 05 December 2009 § ‡ ° Giant moth?
November 22, 2009
This guy was resting on a wall in some woods I frequent for work in South Jersey. It was alive and did’nt seem to mind me taking photos of it. It was a decent six inches across and it was just impressive to see.
Tom Weightman
Haddonfield NJ
Imperial Moth
Hi Tom,
This gal is a female Imperial Moth, and she sure is a big specimen.
Imperial Moth
¶ Posted 23 November 2009 § ‡ ° moth
October 6, 2009
Hi Bugman,
This moth looks like a dead leaf with it’s wings closed. When I set it on the table it struck a nice pose. It’s body on the underside is totally orange and there are pink blotches on the underside of the wings. Very pretty.
Jordan
Costa Rica
Hyperchiria nausica
Hi Jordan,
This beautiful moth does not have a common name. It is Hyperchiria nausica, and we located on Kirby Wolfe’s website.
Hyperchiria nausica
¶ Posted 07 October 2009 § ‡ ° New Mexico Moths
September 15, 2009
Here are pictures of 2 moths that visited us the same night in August, up in the northern New Mexico mountains. I’ve been able to read some about them. Their size is noteable!
J. Ivy
Ute Park, New Mexico
Glover's Silk Moth
New Mexico Moths 2
I’m sorry, I doubled-up on one photo and left out the second moth.
J.Ivy
New Mexico mountains
Glover's Silk Moth
Hi J,
We are very happy you sent a second email with the other moth. Several of your photos of the Glover’s Silk Moth, Hyalophora comumbia gloveri, a subspecies of the Columbia Silk Moth, were incorrectly labeled Polyphemus Moth. Your second moth, though it looks like a Polyphemus Moth, is more likely the much rarer Oculea Moth, Antheraea oculea, which has a limited range in the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico, and possibly Texas. According to the World’s Largest Saturniidae Site: “Oculea is best distinguished from polyphemus by the orange ring around each eyespot and extensive blue and black scaling on all wings. Polyphemus has a yellow ring around each eyespot and black scaling is much less pronounced.”
Oculea Moth
¶ Posted 15 September 2009 § ‡ ° Red Moth
September 6, 2009
I found this outside my door the first week in September. It did not move for two days, but then it moved to the door across from my condo. A few days later it was gone
LP
Bonita Springs, Florida
Io Moth
Dear LP,
This is a female Io Moth. The males have yellow upper wings. Had you disturbed the moth, you may have been treated to the startling eyespots on the underwings. When disturbed, Io Moths, like many other Giant Silkmoths, will reveal these lower wings to startle a predator. A bird or other predator might then think the creature it tried to eat was a much larger head staring at it, and fearing that it might become the prey instead, the predator might then fly away.
¶ Posted 06 September 2009 § ‡ ° I never saw anything like this before
August 31, 2009
I saw this bug on August 31 around 2:00 pm while I was at work. It seemed to be resting on the side of a wall next to a doorway. I thought it was a leaf at first but at a second glance I realized it wasn’t. I never saw a flying insect like this before especially around my area so I am curious as to know what it is.
Matthew S. Gremo
Philadelphia PA, USA
Battered Luna Moth
Hi Matthew,
This is a very battered Luna Moth that is missing its elegant tails. Though the tails are quite distinctive and lovely, they are not truly necessary for flight or survival. Since Luna Moths are tasty treats for birds and bats, we suspect the life of many a Luna Moth has been spared when a predator made off with a mouthful of wing rather than a fat succulent body. It is our opinion that the wing development of a Luna Moth is a highly evolved survival tactic. Luna Moths do not feed as adults, and die within a few days of emergence from the pupa. If losing the tails on the wings allows the adult moth to survive just a few hours longer, it will have time to mate and lay eggs, securing the production of a new generation.
Zephyr Eyed Silkmoth pic
August 29, 2009
Thanks for the caterpillar ID! I have a nice pic of a silkmoth in full, angry display. Can you pass it along to BugGuide? He says on the site that he doesn’t have a pic of one displaying.
Mike
Edgewood, New Mexico, 7000′ pinion forest
Zephyr Eyed Silkmoth
Hi Mike,
Thanks for sending us a photo of the adult Zephyr Eyed Silkmoth, Automeris zephyria, to accompany the caterpillar images your sent us the other day. Here at What’s That Bug? our editorial staff posts all of the letters and images to our site individually, while BugGuide has postings initiated by the readership. Right now, the time it would take us to submit a posting to BugGuide on your behalf would prevent us from posting letters to our own site, depriving our readership of several new letters and depriving our own querants from seeing their letters online. If time permits in the future, we will try to post your letter to BugGuide, but for now, it will be on the internet at our own site.
¶ Posted 29 August 2009 § ‡ ° Luna Moth laying eggs
August 28, 2009
Thought you might be interested in seeing the coloration of this Luna just after laying her eggs.
Boyd
A little East of Shreveport, LA
Luna Moth laying Eggs
Hi Boyd,
We are very excited to post your image of a Luna Moth laying eggs.
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