Is This Where I Sign Up For Moth Of The Week!?!

Is this where I sign up for moth of the week!?!

Yes! On Sundays, I will be posting a moth of the week! You can also look out for other types of moth-related posts in the future :]

Moth of the Week

Comet Moth

Argema mittrei

TW: Trypophobia for pictures

The comet moth or the Madagascan moon moth was first described in 1847 by Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville. This moth is a part of the Saturniidae family and is one of the largest silk moths. This species receives its genus name Argema, meaning 'speckled eye' in Greek, from the large eyespots on its forewings and hindwings. Additionally, the name comet moth comes from their long hindwing tails.

Description The comet moth has large yellow wings with magenta patterns by the head, at the tips and outer margin of the forewings, the top and bottom of the hindwings, and the stem of the hindwing tails. Furthermore, the top edge of the forewings, outer edge of the hindwings, and both sides of the tail are outlined in black. Each of the hindwings and the forewings have large magenta and orange eyespots also outlined in black. The final touch on the wings are white accents by the head and in the eyespots. The body of the comet moth is yellow or a yellow-orange with the top of the legs matching then fading to black. They also have orange antennae.

Females have more rounded wings and larger bodies for egg laying

Average male wingspan: 20 cm (≈7.9 in)

Average male tail span of 15 cm (≈5.9 in)

The males have a longer, more feathery antennas than the females to pick up mating pheromones

Males have longer, thinner tails while females have shorter, thicker ones

Diet and Habitat This moth’s diet and host plants include the smoke tree, the marula tree, the Brazilian peppertree, and the cider gum tree. Most sources say adult moths do not feed because of their inability to use their shrunken mouths. Comet moths are native to Madagascar and nowhere else in the world. Their natural habitat are the Madagascan rainforests. However, they can and have been bred in captivity. Today due to habitat loss, their range is limited to the rainforests located south and east of Madagascar’s capital.

Mating Female moths release and pheromone to attract male mates, who fly to find them. After mating, the females lay 120 to 170 eggs on the host plants that will hatch into caterpillars in 10 to 20 days.

Predators Chameleons, geckos, bats, and birds prey on comet moths. To combat this, the comet moth uses its colors to camouflage itself. Additionally, it uses its long tails to mess with a bat’s echolocation and cause it to attack the tails instead of the moth’s vulnerable body. Furthermore, this species has the ability to use ultrasound absorption so the bat’s echo will come back fainter, and the moth is harder to “see.”Finally, the wing’s eyespots are used to fool predators into thinking the comet moth is a more dangerous animal. The largest current threat to comet moths are humans, and this moth is now endangered sure to habitat loss.

Fun Fact This moth used to be on the 1000 Malagasy ariary banknote.

(Source: Wikipedia, AZ Animals, Natural History Museum UK, The Company of Biologists, Moth Identification)

Moth of the Week

Beautiful Yellow Underwing

Anarta myrtilli

The beautiful yellow underwing is a moth in the family Noctuidae. This species was first described in 1761 by Carl Linnaeus. They are predictably named for the yellow portion of the hindwings.

Description This moth has many color variations depending on region.

The most common coloration is a red and olive brown or olive yellow forewing with strong white patterning. Additionally, the forewings have a ringed stigmata (a spot by the middle of the forewing found on Nocuids) next to a distinctive white spot. The hindwings are orange-yellow with a dark brown borders.

In Sweden, northern England, and northern Scotland the forewings are instead a dull dark purple with paler patterning, the same triangular white spot, and a less visible stigmata. The hindwings are the same yellow-orange but with black borders.

Other minor differences are the forewing being mixed with olive brown in East Anglian, the red in the forewing being almost entirely switched with black in Hyères, France, and the forewing being mixed with black as well as a pale yellow hindwing in Sintra, Portugal.

Average wingspan: 21 mm (≈0.83 in)

Diet and Habitat This moth feeds on Heather and Bell Heather only. It can be found across Europe in Scandinavia, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Russia. They prefer sunny habitats that grow heather easily such as heathland and moorland in the mountain and sandy areas.

Mating The beautiful yellow underwing usually has two generations per year from April to early September. The larvae hatch from their eggs, which are laid on heather, in July in the north and April in the south.

Predators This moth is parasitized by the flies Athrycia impressa, Campylocheta inepta, and Phryxe vulgaris while both are in their larval stages.

Fun Fact The beautiful yellow underwing flies mainly during the day but occasionally comes out at night.

(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation, Pyrgus.de, BioInfo (UK))

Moth of the Week

Isabella Tiger Moth

Pyrrharctia isabella

The isabella tiger moth is part of the Erebidae family and was first officially named in 1797 by James Edward Smith. The caterpillars of this moth are referred to as woolly worms, woolly bears, and banded woolly bears. In Canadian folklore, these caterpillars serve as predictors of harsh or east winters depending on their hair’s length and color.

Description The isabella tiger moth’s body and wings range from tan to yellow-orange. The hindwings are a lighter shade than the forewings with both marked by black spots and faint lines. In females, the hindwings have a pink tone. The body also has a black spotted pattern with reddish-orange forelegs. The moth’s color darkens at the head to a red-orange or brown.

Average wingspan of ≈4.35 cm (≈1.7 in)

Diet and Habitat The caterpillars eat many plants and trees such as grasses, asters, birches, clover, corn, elms, maples, milkweed and sunflowers in deciduous woodlands and prairies. Adults drink nectar from host plants. They use a proboscis, which is like a feeding tube. These moths are found in all of the United States except for the states of Alaska and Hawaii, much of Mexico, and southern Canada. The isabella tiger moth also can be found in the Arctic.

Mating The isabella tiger moth produces two generations a year in its northern range and usually a three generations in the south. In May during the evening, females let out pheromones from a scent gland from their abdomen to attract mates. Males fly in zig-zag patterns and mate with the females. Females lay clusters of 50 or more eggs on the host plants. The eggs will hatch in 5 to 12 days. The eggs hatched in the fall will give way to caterpillars that will freeze in the winter, thaw in spring, and continue the cycle.

Predators Woolly bears will curl into a ball if feeling threatened. The stiff hairs protect the caterpillar from wasps, flies, mantids, birds, and other predators, such as humans. Touching a woolly bear is discouraged because these hairs may cause dermatitis, however they are not venomous and typically don’t cause irritation.

Fun Fact Woollybear festivals are held in several locations in the fall with games, costumes, and a winter prediction.

(Source: Wikipedia, Moth Identification, BugGuide, Minnesota Seasons, iNaturalist, Iron Tree Service, Wildlife in Winter)

Moth of the Week

Oleander Hawk Moth

Daphnis nerii

The oleander hawk-moth or army green moth, is a moth of the family Sphingidae, or the hawk moth family. It was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. The moth gets its names from the oleander plant it feeds on and it’s green colors.

Description This moths body is covered in varying shades of green with accents of tan, while, gray, pink, and black. The shades of each color varies per moth. The intricate patterns on the moth are symmetrical and mirror each other. At its head, the moth is dark green with white details, which then splits into a light green. After the light green is a band of white then a segmented green lower body. The forewings are similar with a dark green and white top and two eye like spots at the next to the head. The forewings turn pink near the center and transition back into green and white with a purple-grey mark on the lower edge. The forewings are shaped differently then most with a curved cut u see the purple-gray mark. The hindwings are much smaller and the same purple-gray with a green bottom edge. The antenna are filiform or wires.

Average wingspan: 11 cm (≈4.3 in)

Diet and Habitat The caterpillars mainly eat the leaves of the oleander plant. This plant is highly toxic, however, the caterpillars are immune. They also eat other plants of the dogbane family and the unbloomed flowers of the pinwheelflower at night. The adults feed on nectar from flowers. They prefer fragrant flowers like petunia, jasmine and honeysuckle. They drink at night. This species is found in wide areas of Africa, Asia and Hawaii. It flies to eastern and southern Europe during the summer, particularly Turkey. On rare occasions, they can even reach western Europe such as England and Scotland. They prefer warm habitats on hillsides and scrublands. In southern Europe, this moth finds itself home in dry riverbeds.

Mating Amount of eggs and season unrecorded. However, the flight season for oleander hawk moths is August to October which may also be when they hatch.

Predators This moth is hunted by birds, lizards, bats, and other common moth predators. The caterpillars of the oleander hawk moth use eyespots to trick predators into thinking they are larger animals.

Fun Fact Moths in the Sphingidae family have impressive flying and hovering ability. This ability is used to drink the nectar from flowers.

(Source: Wikipedia, AZ Animals, Time To Breed, Butterfly Conservation, Pyrgus.de)

Moth of the Week

Ornate Bella Moth

Utetheisa ornatrix

This moth was first described as Phalaena ornatrix and Phalaena bella by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. In 1960, it became known as the Utetheisa ornatrix by William Trowbridge Merrifield Forbes. It’s also called the ornate bella moth, ornate moth, bella moth or rattlebox moth and is in the family Erebidae.

Description The body is white with black spots on the back of the thorax and head. The legs are black and white and antennae are black and filiform. The hindwings are a pale or bright pink with an irregular black border. The forewings are orangish-yellow with white bands surrounding black dots. Patterns may vary. These colors are used to warn predators of the moth’s toxicity.

Wingspan range: 33 - 46 mm (1.3 - 1.8 in)

Diet and Habitat The larva feed on plants of the Crotalaria species such as Avon Park rattlebox, rabbitbells, smooth rattlebox, and showy rattlebox. These plants provide the larva and adults with alkaloid compounds which are the unpalatable to predators. They accumulate these toxins from the seed pods of these plants, however if the larva can’t eat a seed pod due to competition they will have to eat the leaves where is concentration is much lower. Larvae may prey on/eat others of its kind to maintain high levels of alkaloids. Alkaloids are also passed down from parents to eggs.

Its northern most range is from Connecticut westward to southeastern Nebraska and southward to southern New Mexico and Florida in the United States. Its southern most range is from Mexico, South America, and Central America. It’s southernmost reach is southeastern Brazil. This species is more common in tropical parts of this range due to host plant populations.

Mating This species demonstrates a form of sexual selection. The females choose a male to mate with based on the intensity of their pheromones. During mating, the females receive a “spermatophore” from the males containing sperm, nutrients, and alkaloid compounds. After mating, the females choose which males’ sperm fertilizes the eggs. Usually, the female chooses the male with the most alkaloids which tends to be the larger males. Adult males invest up to 11% of their body mass to create a spermatophore they provide to a female during mating. The nutrients given in the spermatophore allow the female to produce an average of 32 additional eggs in her brood.

Females mate an average of 4-5 times and up to 13 times, each with a different male. In the north there there two generations per year with more in the south.

Predators The larva and adults keep predators at bay with alkaloid compounds accumulated during feeding and inherited from parents. These toxins make them unpalatable to their main predators: spiders and bats. Specifically, the adult moth secretes an alkaloid foam from its head when threatened. However, larva and moths with low concentrations are more susceptible to predation than those with higher concentrations who are usually released and unharmed after being caught.

These toxins do not work against some predators like loggerhead shrikes.

Unlike other moths of the Arctiidae subfamily, this species moth does not have a way to audibly communicate their toxic which would help it to avoid bats altogether.

Fun Fact This species was first described on 1758 by Carl Linnaeus as two different species: Phalaena ornatrix was used to describe the paler moth specimens, and Phalanea bella, described the bright pink moth specimens. It was then moved to the genus Utetheisa in 1819 by Hübner. After nearly a century of struggling to identify this species and its subspecies, Forbes combined both species Utetheisa ornatrix and Utetheisa bella into one in 1960: Utetheisa ornatrix.

(Source: Wikipedia; The Island Packet; Institution of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida)