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hoto or how awesome the photo is going to be ask yourself if you re taking the photo in a manner that minimizes your impact on the animal when you get home and you excitedly go to share the photo on facebook or twitter or what have you make sure you ask yourself what details should i add what details should i leave out is this photo okay for me to post you might have good intentions but the welfare of the species in question is more important than likes shares or whatever try to ensure that you don t harm the future of the plant or animal posted by kyle brooks at 3 47 pm 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks photography tuesday june 27 2017 mothing at clear creek the showy on the night of june 17th i traveled to clear creek metro park in fairfield county ohio to participate in a moth night i talked about some of the drab and subtle moths of the night in my previous pos t but now i want to take a moment to highlight some of the showy species weather plays an important part when it comes to mothing as a general rule moths like warm and dark nights the darker and warmer the night the more moths you will see luckily the night was not only in the mid 70 s but was also pitch black no moon was out and clouds covered the sky the amount of moths flying and visiting the mothing sheets was incredible as the photo above shows i ll begin with the io moth automeris io the io moth is a stunning species in the saturniidae family the same family the contains other knockout species like the luna moth cecropia moth and the imperial moth the io moth is a relatively common moth across the entirety of ohio and over a dozen visited the sheets during the course of the night as you have probably noticed the wings of the io moth have two large eye spots these eye spots serve to ward off predators the io moth typically sits with its wings closed if a potential predators comes near the io moth will open its wings and flash its eye spots if everything goes according to plan the surprised predator should back off giving the io moth time to escape moths have a diverse array of anti predator defense mechanisms and not all are based on appearances take the painted lichen moth hypoprepia fucosa for example this species along with many other related tiger moths subfamily arctiinae has another line of defense when the painted lichen moth flies at night they are at risk of being eaten by various bat species the painted lichen moth is semi toxic though and relatively unpalatable to bats the problem is bats won t be able to see the red orange black warning coloration of the moth at night so how does the moth let bats know not to try to eat it they click when a bat is in the area making its own clicking noises for echolocation the painted lichen moth will hear the bat and begin clicking in defense this lets the bat know that this moth isn t a good meal and the bat will hopefully leave the moth alone this tiny moth is the orange headed epicallima epicallima argenticinctella this species inhabits deciduous forests where the caterpillars feed on elm trees the orange headed epicallima is what is commonly known as a micro moth micro moth is general name given to tiny moths there is no strict definition of a micro moth but most people seem to consider moths that are 1 2 inch long or smaller as a micro moth identifying micro moths is oftentimes a difficult process but the orange headed epicallima is one of the more easily identifiable species another showy micro moth of the night was the labyrinth moth phaecasiophora niveiguttana the caterpillars of this species feed on the mid story tree species sassafras and witch hazel this moth gave me quite the headache and this frustration underscores a problem with arthropod field guides i must have flipped through the peterson field guide to moths of northeastern north america a good 5 7 times while trying to identify this moth but i simply couldn t find it i posted a photo of it on the facebook group mothing ohio to see if someone could help within a few minutes a member id ed it for me and i soon realized why i couldn t find it in the guide it wasn t in there when it comes to arthropods there are tens of thousands of species there are over 11 000 species of moths alone in north america a field guide can not simply contain every single species with numbers like these even if that guide only focuses on one group of arthropods in one section of the continent like the peterson guide does choices have to be made on what to include and what to exclude and the authors of the peterson field guide to moths only included 1 500 of the most common or most eye catching moths in northeastern north america luckily the internet fills in these field guide gaps and facebook groups or sites like bugguide will help you out when i was a young kid this was the first moth that i learned the name of this is the giant leopard moth hypercompe scribonia the giant leopard moth along with the polyphemus moth were my two spark moths a spark animal is the colloquial term for a species that inspires a curiosity or admiration of a given group of animals in a person the individual pictured above is actually a female giant leopard moth as can be told by the loss of wing scales on the ends of the wings when giant leopard moths mate the male and female will stay attached for 24 or more hours during this long lasting session of mating the male will position his wings over the female s this results in the male accidentally rubbing off the female s wing scales leading to an appearance like this staying with black and white moths for a moment here s the neighbor haploa contigua moths have the best names don t they the neighbor belongs to a group of tiger moths in the genus haploa which are often referred to as the haploa moths haploa moths all have various black lines set against white wings and identification involves carefully studying the patterns of those black lines to see the diversity of wing patterns in the haploa moths check out this bugguide link this is the beautiful wood nymph eudryas grata the beautiful wood nymph is just one of several moth species which are hypothesized to be mimicking bird droppings imagine you re a small predator making your way through the forest in search of a meal if this moth was just sitting on a leaf out in the open you would probably be quick to dismiss it as some unsavory bird feces you would move on in search of some actual tasty food and the beautiful wood nymph would live another day this stunning moth is the dark banded geometer ecliptopera atricolorata for many this was moth highlight of the night this is another relatively uncommon species that is missing from the peterson field guide to moths typically when i write a post like this i try to find at least one neat fact to share for each species the problem is i can barely find any information on this species i did however find a quote about this moth from the famous lepidopterist and naturalist william jacob holland in his 1903 book entitled the moth book holland writes that the dark banded geometer is one of the most beautiful of the geometrid moths found in the atlantic states there you have it the dark banded geometer always a show stopper i ll end with the very last moth of the night this gigantic beauty is the polyphemus moth antheraea polyphemus due to columbus metro park rules the moth night had to officially end at midnight the night however did not end there after shutting down the mothing sheets many of the moth ers traveled down the road to a gas station that straddles the intersection of clear creek road and us route 33 why travel to a gas station you might ask well there are bright lights and these lights attract moths we might not have been able to moth in clear creek metro park at that point but we could still moth at a gas station and yes i realize how absolutely ridiculous this must sound to those of you not into moths as i mentioned earlier in this post the polyphemus was one of my spark moths and you can probably see why this thing is huge just to give you an idea of size my hand is about 8 inches long this polyphemus moth has about a 6 inch wingspan making it one of the largest moth species in ohio it s hard not to stop and take a closer look at this moth even for those who might hate insects that wraps up my two part series on some of the moths of clear creek metro park once again the first part can be found at this link mothing at clear creek the subtle thanks for reading posted by kyle brooks at 8 27 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks arthropods fairfield county ohio insects moths location clear creek metro park 185 clear creek rd rockbridge oh 43149 united states saturday june 24 2017 mothing at clear creek the subtle last weekend i had the pleasure of attending a moth night at clear creek metro park the attendees saw a lot of moths over the course of the night and i wanted to highlight a few species in particular i ll be doing so in two posts this post will focus on some of the more drab and subtle moth species of the night while the next post will focus on the more showy and colorful moth species of the night edit click on this link to see the second post covering the showy moths of the night moth nights are fun the activity of mothing a hobby involving the pursuit of moth diversity centers primarily around moth sheets like the ones pictured above moth sheets in themselves are nothing special they re just plain white bed sheets the magic lies in the lighting although normal household lights will attract moths here and there you really need to use one of two types of special lights to really attract the moths uv lights and mercury vapor lights are the weapon of choice here with mercury vapor lights being the best of the best this moth night at clear creek consisted of 4 mothing sheets set up throughout one section of the park several dozens of various moth species visited each sheet over the night so let s jump right into some of the more drab and subtle species of the night first up is the common lytrosis lytrosis unitaria the common lytrosis is a rather large moth coming in with around a 3 inch wingspan i think this is a perfect species to start out with if it were to fly by you you might simply dismiss it as a big brown moth but upon closer inspection you would see all the minute and intricate details present in the wings we humans tend to like the showy eye grabbing things in life and we often skip over things that don t instantly grab our attention but if you start taking a closer look at those boring things you will soon find that they aren t so boring after all mothing is like looking at abstract art with abstract art the appeal lies not within some straightforward meaning that the elements of the artwork create but instead lies within the elements of the artwork themselves the colors and the contrast the changing patterns across the canvas the lines that take you on a journey through the artwork the appeal of mothing at least in my opinion is the same it s just fun to look closely at each species and see how all the colors patterns and lines interact with each other and how that changes from species to species this moth is called the barred granite speranza subcessaria and its dark patches set among a pale gray background is a great example of contrasting elements one of the most enjoyable parts of mothing lies in the process of identification this is the hemlock angle macaria fissinotata at first glance it looks almost identical to the previous barred granite but closer inspection reveals differences in patterning when i go mothing i take photos of everything i see i then spend the next week or so trying to identify each species from the comfort of my home i use the peterson field guide to moths of northeastern north america for this part identifying moths can be super frustrating but in a fun way identifying these drab moths involves a lot of flipping from page to page through the peterson guide over and over again and again eventually you find the species you re looking for but not always as the name of this species implies the larvae feed on eastern hemlock and occasionally basalm fir clear creek metro park has a big population of eastern hemlocks so it s no surprise that the hemlock angle is there when i first saw this moth i thought it was some species of emerald subfamily geometrinae but it s actually the pale metanema metanema inatomaria in the subfamily ennomina the caterpillar of the pale metanema uses various poplar species and occasionally willows as a host this is a bog lygropia lygropia rivulalis when it comes to most moths we really don t know much information about their natural history with most species we at least know what types of plants the caterpillars feed on with the bog lygropia we don t even know that in fact from what i can tell we don t even know what the caterpillar looks like there s so much fundamental information we re missing when it comes to the dark side of lepidoptera this is the beggar eubaphe mendica a rather common sight at mothing sheets the common names of moths are strange for decades there were no common names when people began getting into moths those who made guides decided that they needed common names in addition to the scientific names to solve this problem they simply began making names up some common names were based off the scientific names for example the bog lygropia is called such because its scientific name is lygropia rivulalis and it prefers wet and boggy areas other names are not as straightforward and the beggar is one such example no one is exactly sure why it s call that but the speculation is that whoever named it thought the dark patches on the wings looked like the holes in a stereotypical beggar s clothes next up is the isabella tiger moth which you probably better know as the woolly bear pyrrharctia isabella a single individual visited the mothing sheet that night and it happened to be a very worn individual that had lost a lot of its patterning luckily there isn t much else that looks like an adult isabella tiger moth if you ve ever wondered what the woolly bear turns into after metamorphosis now you know side note if you want to learn about some more fuzzy caterpillars check out my previous post caterpillars of the fuzzy variety i ll end this post with the arched hooktip drepana arcuata the adults are your typical moth the caterpillars however are unique during the arched hooktip s caterpillar stage the caterpillars like to be with other caterpillars of the same species how do they find other caterpillars they drum one caterpillar will roll a leaf up tighten it down with silk and then crawl inside this new home once inside the caterpillar will begin making vibrations by dragging parts of its anal seg...
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