A Zale
Here’s a porch light moth from almost exactly a year ago (July 3, 2011). From the pose, the size, and the kind of wavy dark patterning on the wings, I think this is one of the Zales[1], a large genus of common moths.
It may possibly be a Lunate Zale, Zale lunata, which is pretty common in eastern North America and has a somewhat variable wing patterning that often looks about like this.
The caterpillars are generalists, eating leaves of trees ranging from plum to maple to willow, so if I go out beating around the bush I could conceivably find them on most anything.
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[1] When I first realized that it was probably a Zale, I hoped that it would turn out to be the “Horrid Zale”, just because it is a great name. But no, it isn’t – they have distinctly different wing coloration. Incidentally, Horrid Zales aren’t actually that horrible. It seems that, in Latin, “horridus” means rough or shaggy, with hair standing on end. Which I guess is where the English “Horrid” came from – something that is horrid makes your hair stand on end.
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The suggestive name is redolent of books by Dr. Seuss.
Zales. I wonder what type of creature he would have dreamed up for this name or perhaps this name was taken from a Dr. Seuss book?
I, too, would have preferred the job title on this construction site to be “Horrid Zale,” simply because it does look creepy –like a moth eaten Persian rug section from an abandoned mansion or the magnified section of a sixties wallpaper or worse still the floor linoleum. A more positive rendition of this bug is that it could make a rather worn hand fan for the boiling hot days of summer that have suddenly suffocated us here in Alberta.
I am continually surprised by the perversity of insect life you have in the vicinity of your abode. Is it a matter of your place being unusually infested with vermin?
I’d love to see some A. A. Milne in our naming. How about the “Spotted or Herbaceous Zale”?
Julie: Actually, no, I don’t think we have a really unusual variety of insects. In fact, we probably have less kinds than people have further south. This is very much a “seek and ye shall find” situation – if you go just about anywhere and start looking for insects, you *will* find them.
Well, OK, maybe not so much in Antarctica or Greenland. But anywhere *else* and you’ll find them.
KT: It goes both ways, I suppose. One could probably write a nice children’s book that only uses names taken from various insects.
The other thing I thought of was how much trouble you could get in as a husband with these things.
Her: You got me a … a … a MOTH?!?
You: Well, you said you saw some nice things at Zales!