White spotted moth
Hi and thanks for your time.
My name is Ian Thomson from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I came home the other day to see a moth I haven’t seen before perched on my porch door. It is appx. 3/4" long and is mostly snow white with small black spots. It seems very well camouflaged for my white door trim, but it doesn’t seem especially well suited for the wild in Wisconsin this time of year. I am curious if you have any idea what this fella may be, and if it may be unusual for this area, or if I just haven’t been looking hard enough. The moth is hanging upside down, but I rotated the photos right side up. Also, apologies for the photo quality–my digital camera is not especially sophisticated and refuses to focus on near objects. I did some brief searching and saw a giant leopard moth, but this seems much smaller with less dark spotting. Perhaps a cousin? Please let me know your thoughts as I am very curious. Thank you much for your time, I look forward to your reply!
Ian Thomson
Hi Ian,
Your moth is in the Ermine Moth family Yponomeutidae and in the genus Yponomeuta. We located it on BugGuide and it does not have a common name.
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Posted 13 July 2008
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Thanks Daniel,
I discovered your site last night. So I am sending you a photo of a moth I took in Longsheng, China. I had a poor vantage point and could not get it all. But it was exquisite. And of course, I don’t know what it is. Actually, I don’t know if it is a moth.
Monique
Hi Monique,
We believe your moth is a Geometrid or Spanworm Moth. Perhaps Julian Donahue can confirm or correct or elaborate.
Daniel
Update: (07/12/2008)
Bingo! Daniel is correct: it is a geometrid moth (Geometridae), in the subfamily Geometrinae (the Emeralds). It is one of two species in the genus: the aptly named Iotaphora admirabilis (Oberthuer, 1883), or the similar I. iridicolor (Butler, 1880). The genus only occurs in China, eastern Siberia, and North India. Nothing is known of their life histories. Images of admirabilis from Siberia are at: http://olegberlov.narod.ru/geom34.html and an image of one identified as iridicolor is at: http://www.bjbug.com/insect/moth/htmE/mo00020.htm
Julian
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Posted 12 July 2008
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what are these bugs?
Hi!
My name is Sarah. Attached are pictures of some moths that I found mating on my husband’s car. I’m in Jacksonville, Florida the beaches area. Any idea as to what they may be? Thanks!
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
When we first sent you the rather truncated response with just the Polyphemus Moth identification, we had every intention of formatting your lovely photos and posting them. We especially like that your photos demonstrate a change in position and open and closed wing views. Thanks for your lovely addition to our archives.
I couldn’t find this moth on your site.
\Hi Bugman,
Thanks for helping me with my bug questions. I found this moth hanging out on a curb at about 3am in Clarksville, Tennessee. This moth is about 3 inches or so long and its wings are colored like tree bark. I tried to scoot the moth onto my hand to take a picture, but the moth flew away, at least that’s what I thought. I noticed the moth heading towards some roses and I am proud to say I saw one of these giants feed for the first time. This moth’s proboscis has got to be at least 6 inches long and to see it "roll out" is amazing. Anyway, I couldn’t find this moth on your site, but I’m assuming it is some type of Sphynx. Anything you could tell me would be great. Thanks for your help, hard work and dedication,
Adam in Tennessee
Hi Adam,
We have several images of your species of moth, the Pink Spotted Hawkmoth, Agrius cingulata. Your action photo is quite spectacular. We are copying Bill Oehlke on this reponse since he is keeping records of the distribution of sphinx moths on his own awesome website.
Hi, we found these bugs in the road, we think they are privit hawks but arent 100% We moved them out of the road because they would have been squashed and are now in our garden. We live in the south of england.
Danny
Hi Danny,
Your identification of the Privet Hawk-Moth, Sphinx ligustri, is correct.
Pink Striped Oakworm Moths “Bug Love”
Species: Anisota virginiensis
Location: Gainesville State College, Oakwood, Hall County, GA, USA
Date/Time: 8 JUL 2008/1210 hrs
The last things I expected to see after my math test were these lovely pink striped oakworm moths “in flagrante delicto” about five feet up a large tree-trunk. According to www.butterfliesandmoths.org , they usually mate in the morning, but I guess these guys were late risers (or long maters!). Unfortunately, I didn’t have my digital camera with me at the time, so a friend took the picture on his phone. With the reduced image quality, the almost impossible fuzziness of the moths is lost, as well as the amazing luster of their colors. The male’s body was not dark brown, as the aforementioned site suggests, but was instead a deep red-purple and orange. Finding these moths made my day, test and all!
Jon-Jacob Deal
Photo by Brian Edgar
Hi Jon-Jacob and Edgar,
Thanks for sending us this romantic image of mating Pink Striped Oakworm Moths.
Moth disquised as bark or bird poop?
Hey there Bug Man,
I was out working in the driveway and noticed what I thought was bird poop at first on the brick garage return. As I got closer I knew exactly what it was, a very well disguised moth. I haven’t had a chance to look it up and I always love seeing new bugs on your site so I thought I would shoot it your way. Would love to share it with your devout viewers. Thanks again
Ekoesling
Hi Ekoesling,
This wonderful Bird Dropping mimic is a Wood Nymph Moth in the genus Eudryas. Disguising oneself like fecal matter is one good way to keep from being eaten, and there are numerous examples in nature where this works. Sometimes looking like $#!+ isn’t a bad thing.
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Posted 09 July 2008
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Gypsy Moth Caterpillars and pupa, Cedar Point County Park, (Long Island) NY
The park is suffering from a massive gypsy moth infestation. Many trees were partially defoliated by these buggers. They invaded our campsite as well by crawling under the edge of the screen-in tent and crawling on our chairs, tables, cooler, you name it. We had to look before grabbing anything or sitting down or *squish*. Not fun. They also seem to have irritating bristly hairs, especially the larger caterpillars, which got both of us (my husband and I) in the hands as we removed offending crawlies from our belongings. I never really realized that they had such variation in color. I took a photo of a small gathering of caterpillars on a tree trunk. They are rather pretty though not great to have around. One also decided to pupate on our flag that was hanging off the tent side. The pupa had to be evicted but I was able to snap a couple of pictures of it including the size comparison one included in this email. I hope these are helpful for your site.
Tamar
p.s. Despite all of this we had a nice camping trip.
Hi Tamar,
Thank you for the partial metamorphosis documentation of the introduced, invasive Gypsy Moth, Lymantria dispar. It is a pest species throughout much of the northeast, but it has recently become established in the pacific northwest. Readers can view more images on BugGuide. We see that you sent us numerous submissions, and we will try to post what will be of most interest or assistance to our readership.
Gypsy Moth
(07/15/2008) Gypsy moth addition from Cedar Point County Park, Long Island, NY
It turns out we had a stow away after all. I found this male Gypsy moth hanging out and waiting for his wings to dry out and stiffen on one of our folding chairs (that happened to come with us on the camping trip). Maybe you can add this to my previous post so you can have photos of three stages of the life cycle of these guys.
Tamar
Hi Tamar,
We will post this adult male Gypsy Moth on our homepage and add the photo to your previous archived entry. Luckily this male Gypsy Moth won’t be expanding his range. Transportation of insects unknowingly in cars and other vehicles is one of the surest ways to expan any insects range, but this is most critical with invasive exotics like the Gypsy Moth.
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Posted 08 July 2008
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a picture for you
Bugman,
this is an unidentified sphinx that I suspect is in the genus Eumorpha but doesn’t match the plates in Covell. I photographed it around June 25 at my porch located at 3500 feet elevation in the blue ridge mountains of nw North Carolina. Any help with id would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
J. M. Lynch
hi J.M.,
Your mysterious Sphinx most closely resembles the Achemon Sphinx, Eumorpha achemon, that ranges in North Carolina, but the markings don’t look correct. The camera angle of your photo is not ideal for exact identification as there is some perspective distortion that could be confusing both of us. We will be copying a true Sphingidae expert, Bill Oehlke, to see if he can provide a conclusive identification for both you and our site. If this is a new species in North Carolina, Bill will be most excited to include it in his comprehensive species distribution statistics. We eagerly await Bill Oehlke’s response.
Identification
Hi Daniel, The mysterious NC sphinx is Darapsa myron. Are you posting these images somewhere that I can visit them? I already have check lists for all of the states and provinces. Now I am trying to get to the county level. The data really is of no use to me unless I can ascertain the county.
Bill Oehlke
moth
Hi Bugman,
This moth was rescued from a bucket of water in our backyard. We live in west central Illinois. We didn’t know how long she would be with us. So she stayed with us for 3 days, laying eggs each night. We released her so my 6 yr old,Madelynn, would have to perform a moth funeral. We left for 4 days to attend my Grandma’s funeral. Ok, so here is the next dilemma. Momma moth laid all these eggs, which have now started hatching (less than 2 weeks from momma’s arrival). I wasn’t really expecting hatchlings before we got home, if at all. Since we’ve gotten this far what should we do? Thought it might be fun to witness the complete cycle for a few, and release some too. Last summer it was 5 swallowtail butterflies. Madelynn swears her butterflies come back to play each year, because she has seen them and they know where we live! So hopefully you can understand this dilemma. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank You,
Sandy in Illinois
Hi Sandy,
Raising some of these Imperial Moth caterpillars, Eacles imperialis, to adulthood is something neither Madelynn nor you will ever forget. BugGuide includes the following as caterpillar food plants: “Larvae feed on leaves of Bald Cypress, basswood, birch, cedar, elm, hickory, Honeylocust, maple, oak, pine, Sassafras (Sassafras albidum ), Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua ), sycamore, walnut. ” The caterpillars will feed on many deciduous and coniferous tree leaves, and you can search the internet for other lists that will include a tree that is available to you. Thanks for your wonderful letter.
sable moths
Hello bug people,
Thought you might enjoy this photo of what I think are White Spotted Sables, Anania funebris. They were on my deck in upstate New York in early June. My five-year-old son and I thought they were very handsome, although we had different theories about what they might be doing.
Kathie & Cole
Hi Kathie and Cole,
Cole is correct. The White Spotted Sable Moths are mating. Kathie, we are not sure what you thought they were doing.
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Posted 30 June 2008
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Tagged: bug love
cecropia and others
Hi! A couple of years ago I sent you pictures of my Cecropia project — I raised a bunch of caterpillars and was rewarded with beautiful moths the next spring. Last year I was fortunate enough to get more caterpillars, and I wanted to share some images of the moths. Very serendipitously, as you’ve made them your bug of the month for July. For your bug love page, here’s images of Red Milkweed Beetles (Tetraopes tetraophthalmus) and Scarlet and Green Leafhoppers (Graphocephala coccinea) — one with the two leafhoppers getting advice from the beetle! I’ve included a pic of a Nessus Sphinx (Amphion floridensis) that I took last year in my back yard. According to the folks at Butterflies and Moths of North America ( http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org ) it’s a first report from MN, so that’s pretty exciting. I know it’s not a great pic but I thought you might like to see it 
Lastly is a pic of what I think is Labidomera clivicollis, Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle. What do you think? Thanks as always for a great site
henry
hi Henry,
While we applaud your enthusiasm and are impressed with the volume if imagery you sent our way, we have to limit our postings. We are thrilled to post your mating Candystriped Leafhoppers and a cropped version of the three Cecropia Moths on your window screen, awaiting an opportunity to venture into the night.
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