Two Geometrid Moths, and Friends
Here are more insects that came to our garage light on May 19, 2012. This first picture is a three-fer:
I can’t really identify the narrow-winged one on the right beyond being another plume moth, and the tiny one in the upper left (which I actually didn’t even notice in the picture until just now) is probably one of the many species of leaf-mining micromoths. The big brown moth in the middle, though, is a good match for the Curved Tooth Geometer, alias the Purplish-Brown Looper[1], also known as Eutrapela clemataria. And if that’s in fact what it is, I’ve already posted pictures of the caterpillar of this species. The distinctive features are the nearly straight line running across the backs of the wings, the scalloped appearance of the wing trailing edges, and the white antennae combined with a white spot in the middle of the forehead.
Aaaand, just above the moth’s left front leg, the levitating green ball that I noticed just now is probably another lacewing egg
And, just a few inches away on the ceiling there was this other geometrid moth, along with a very chummy click beetle. I’ve only got one picture of the second pair, so I might as well include them here.
Just for grins, I dropped the picture into the Google Image Search with the search term “Moth”, and surprise, surprise! It actually found a picture that matched it surprisingly well, that has a species name attached to it! It may be the paler color phase of Melanolophia canadaria, if this page is to be believed. And if you look near the trailing edge of the left wing, I think there is another lacewing egg that I didn’t notice in the picture until just now. Well, these pictures were taken the same morning that I found the ceiling near the light covered with lacewings, so they were probably laying eggs all over the place.
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[1] I was going to make an obscure comment about giving multiple names to the same thing, but then decided that it doesn’t even make sense in this case. If going from caterpillar to moth isn’t a sufficient change in one’s nature to warrant a new name, what is?
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