Terrifying Orange Hornet(?)
October 8, 2009
Hi Bugman-
I spotted two of these orange flyers today in my backyard garden in Austin, Texas. They were buzzing around my zucchini plant(hopefully pollinating it in the process). They seemed a lot more interested in the plant than in me, yet due to my wildly irrational fear of stinging insects, I was petrified. I only managed to get a few shots before the buzzed away for good. I tried to identify them online but haven’t had any luck. Any idea on the species?
John
Austin, Texas
Squash Vine Borer
Hi John,
This is not a hornet. It is a moth that mimics a hornet for protection. It is a Squash Vine Borer, and the larvae will bore in the stems of squash and pumpkin vines, causing the plants to wither.
Squash Vine Borer
Thank you so much for the heads up. Before I had only heard of the Squash Bug as a pest to look out for around my squash vine. After I got your email, I read up on the Vine Borer, went out in the garden and saw the telltale signs that of the borers inside. I did some surgery with a knife and tweezers and pulled out a big fat borer larva…it’s a fairly small plant so I’m hoping it was the only one. Thank you so much for your help, you’re a lifesaver! -John
moth
October 7, 2009
please can you tell me what this moth is that we came across whilst we were on holiday in the southwest of france in september 2009? are they poisones and should i have handled it
pauline
south west france
Death's Head Hawkmoth
Hi pauline,
Congratulations on your sighting of a Death’s Head Hawkmoth, Acherontia atropos, the moth that was featured in the book and movie Silence of the Lambs. It is found in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. Though we have received several images of caterpillars in the past, we believe this is the first image we have received of an adult moth or imago. Wikipedia has an extensive page on this fascinating species. It is not poisonous.
Comment
The Caterpillar of this species [which I believe has a wide geographic range] is consumed. In Papua New Guinea.
Dave Gracer
Butterfly
October 6, 2009
Hi Bugman,
Have had a lot of this kind of (butterfly?) this year. Always shows up at night in either the house or the barn. Can you identify it?
Thank you,
Jordan
Costa Rica
Nothus lunus
Hi Jordan,
Though it looks like a Swallowtail Butterfly, WE actually believe this is a diurnal moth and not a butterfly, but we haven’t had any luck with its identification. It reminds us of the Sunset Moth, Urania fulgens.
Update from Julian Donahue
This is a moth in the Neotropical family Sematuridae (one species makes it, rarely, into Arizona). This particular moth goes by a number of names, and a revision of the genus is clearly needed. It is most likely Nothus (= Sematura) lunus (or aegisthus?), which occurs from Mexico to Brazil. There are anywhere from four to 11 recognized species in the genus, which also occurs in the West Indies.
Julian
Update from Karl
Hi Daniel:
This is indeed a moth, Sematura luna (=lunus?), and it looks like it is probably a male (females have a white band down the middle of both wings). The taxonomy is a little confusing as I had trouble determining if luna = lunus, or if they are closely related species or subspecies. My favourite Costa Rican reference (Mariposas de Costa Rica) uses S. luna, South American references seem to use S. lunus. It belongs to the relatively small and poorly understood family Sematuridae (subfamily Sematuerinae), which has approximately 40, mostly neotropical species. They belong to the superfamily Geometroidea, along with the Uraniidae and Geometridae families. Although they resemble the large diurnal Uraniid moths, most Sematurids are nocturnal, Sematura sp. included. They are sometimes called Eyetails, for obvious reasons. Regards.
Karl
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Posted 07 October 2009
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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
Large Green New Zealand Moth
September 28, 2009
Hi, This moth greeted me on the steps to my house when I returned from work. Most likely it was there when I went to work. It is still early spring here.
You can see one wing in the photo. The other is wrapped onto the opposite side and held near the belly. The body is full, long, and thick, and the tail end can be seen poking out of the bottom of the wings.
Pictures were taken with a 8mp camera on tulip setting. When you zoom in you can see the water droplets and the hairs. It is very cool looking.
When it became dark it flew away. It was about 5cm long. Please let me know the name.
Kind Regards,
MarkcNZ
Eastbourne New Zealand (Near Wellington)
Puriri Moth from New Zealand
Hi MarkcNZ,
This is an impressive moth. Over the years, we have properly identified two green moths from New Zealand and Australia, but this appears to represent yet a different species. The markings are somewhat similar to a Geometrid, Tatosoma tipulata, that we posted in May, but it is obviously different. Several times, we have posted images of moths in the genus Aenetus, from the family Hepialidae, known as Ghost Moths or Swift Moths. That is our best guess and possibilities are posted on an Australian Lepidoptera page. We started to follow that thought, and we found a species Aenetus virescens, known as the Puriri Moth, that Wikipedia calls: “New Zealand’s largest native moth.“ We also located an image on Flickr. We are confident that the identification is correct despite variations in the markings from image to image.
Euhagena
September 27, 2009
Hi Lisa Anne and Daniel, over the past two weeks I have sporadically been observing a group of these Euhagena nebraskae. The area I’m seeing them is well-known to me and little or none of their reported larval food (Oenothera) grows there. I did follow a female who I believe was ovipositing and collected what may be her egg from an Helianthus she tapped her abdomen against. Am just wondering if any of your readers have had similar observations.
Thanks,
Dwaine
near Casper, WY
Euhagena nebraskae
Hi Dwaine,
We can always count on you to provide our website with excellent photos of underrepresented species. This Clearwing Moth has larvae that are root borers in plants belonging to the primrose family as you have indicated. Often the larval food plant information posted online is incomplete, and it is possible the Euhagena nebraskae uses plants in the sunflower family when primrose is not available. We will post your letter and awesome images in the hope that our readership can elaborate on your observations.
Euhagena nebraskae
How fortuitous that you were also able to photograph the sexually dimorphic male of the species. Are you able to clarify that our posting is correct?
Euhagena nebraskae male
Many plumed moth
September 27, 2009
Dear Bugman,
My intention to send you better pictures of the many plumed moth a good week ago fizzled when Josephine the cat ate my photo opportunity. Imagine my joy when I found another moth this evening in the bathroom! It sat very nicely for close-ups both on the cabinet top and the wallpaper border.
The tweezers give a good idea of how tiny that moth is; in the lighter picture, you can see that it is even wearing a little “coronet” to go with the sparkly wings; and the darker picture really brings out the shining copper sprinkles.
While this moth is fascinating to see against a lighted surface, its real beauty doesn’t show that way. I think these pictures might do the gorgeous little thing some justice.
Vera-Iratwo
Northern Minnesota
Many Plumed Moth
Hi again Vera-Iratwo,
Thanks for thinking of us and sending in your wonderful images of another Many Plumed Moth.
Many Plumed MOth
Moth?
September 24, 2009
This”moth” was labeled a stowaway. I’m uncertain if it came from the Denver Airport/airplane and stayed on my luggage till we got to Tulsa, Oklahoma or if it just greeted us in Tulsa when we were waiting for our ride. I was standing outside the Tulsa airport on August 2nd about midnight and looked down to see this LARGE moth looking thing (It was about the size of my iphone). He really liked my bag – Not wanting to touch its wings, I had a little trouble getting it off! I found a stick and kind of forced it to walk aboard and then I put him in a safe place. Can you tell me what kind it is?
Katie ~ Photographer
Probably Tulsa, Oklahoma
Pandora Sphinx
Hi Katie,
Bill Oehlke’s awesome website does not report the Pandora Sphinx, Eumorpha pandorus, from Colorado, but the species is found in Oklahoma, which is indicated as the western limit of the range.
What’s that moth?
September 22, 2009
I am not from this field. So don’t have much to write about it except that the moth was found recently, in September 2009 in Pune, India
Ram Kulkarni
Pune, India
Fruit Piercing Moth from India
Hi Ram,
This is such a beautiful moth, that despite being late for work, we have decided to post it as unidentified in the hopes that one of our readers will have enough time to research its name. Karl, are your reading???
Hi Daniel:
This beautiful moth is a fruit-piercing moth (Noctuidae: Calpinae [sometimes included in subfamily Ophiderinae or Catocalinae]) in the genus Eudocima. There are several similar looking species in India, but I believe this one is probably E. materna. The common name is sometimes given as the Pacific Fruit-Piercing Moth, but the same name is also given for other closely related species. It is very wide ranging, found throughout Asia, Africa and the Pacific. It was formerly considered pantropical, but New World populations (including in the USA and Canada) are now considered their own species, the nearly identical E. apta =Ophideres apta). As the common name implies, the adult moths are considered a pest on a wide variety fruit trees. The individual in Ram’s photo looks like a male. Regards.
Karl
Many-plumed moth
September 18, 2009
Dear Bugman,
this tiny moth was sitting on my computer monitor recently. I took pictures and put two of them on my blog. This morning, I found a blog comment from friend Scrimshaw suggesting that I submit the photo to whatsthatbug. Although whatsthatbug is one of my two favorite bug ID sites, the thought hadn’t occurred to me since I wasn’t looking for an ID of the moth. Needless to say, I’ll share it gladly anyway!
This is only the second time I’ve had this kind of moth in the house. According to bugguide, it belongs with the many-plumed moths. It’s a tiny little thing, barely a half inch from wing tip to wing tip, and at first glance looks like a micro-mini pleated Victorian lace fan.
Vera-Iratwo
Northern Minnesota
Many Plumed Moth
Hi Vera-Iratwo,
We are also posting the letter we received yesterday from Scrimshaw alerting us to your posting as well as our response to him. We are very happy you wrote in with your photo as the Many Plumed Moth is such an unusual and lovely moth. We are also including the higher resolution image that Scrimshaw attached to his email. BugGuide has considerable information on the Many Plumed Moth family Alucitidae.
Many Plumed MOth
September 17, 2009
Many plumed moth on monitor
Reading a favorite blog, saw this photo of a many plumed moth on blogger’s computer monitor, in MN or thereabouts. Amazing macro photo of creature at
Link: http://ira2.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/pretty-distraction/#comments
Curious to know if her ID is correct, and wish to share Vera-Ira’s cool bug photo with you buglove folks. Since the photo is hers, I will not upload it here.
OK, if you insist…
Scrimshaw
northern plains US
Many Plumed Moth
Dear Scrimshaw,
We wish the person who took the photo had submitted it. It is beautiful, but sadly, we cannot ethically post it without her permission.
Pearl Crescent
September 18, 2009
Hello, Dan & Lisa,
I have a few photos, and I know you can’t publish them which is okey-dokey,
One I do know for sure has been identified by the Minnesota representative for the Butterflies and Moths of North America web site as a Lesser Maple Spanworm Moth. If you go to that site, look on the map and you’ll see a little blue dot in Minnesota. That’s my moth!
The next one is a pearl crescent, I think, but I’m not sure.
And last, but not least is what I call, Big Daddy Bee, a Bombus auricomus. I love those gentle giants!
These were all in my front yard garden in Minnetonka Minnesota.
Anyway, I don’t recall seeing these on your site so I thought you might enjoy my photos.
Take care
Laura
Minnetonka Minnesota
Lesser Maple Spanworm Moth
Hi Laura,
We will be posting all of your images, but we are going to do them as distinct posts and we will edit your letter accordingly for subsequent postings since having three different species from different categories in the same letter negatively impacts our archiving. As we don’t have any previous postings of Lesser Maple Spanworm Moths, Speranza pustularia, we are quite happy with that submission.
beautiful moth from southern Turkey
September 17, 2009
Hello! I took this picture of a moth on the hills above the southern coast of Turkey. I was told it was native to that part of Turkey and one island of Greece and nowhere else. I use it in the masthead of my blog, so would love to be able to name the species.
Hope you can help – thanks,
Cath
southern Turkey – near Eşen / Fethiye
Cream Spot Tiger Moth
Hi Cath,
This is a Tiger Moth in the family Arctiidae. We will contact Julian Donahue, a lepidopterist who specializes in the family, to see if he can provide a species identification.
Julian Donahue responds
It’s the Cream-spot Tiger (Arctia villica); widespread, from southern England through Europe and western Asia and North Africa.
Julian P. Donahue
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