Common Spring Moth
On July 2, 2013, we noticed hundreds of these moths fluttering around the clump of Black Locust trees just southeast of our house, so we caught one.
They were smallish moths, with wingspans a bit under an inch. As it turns out, I recognize this moth, as I posted a single photo of one back in 2012. It’s a Common Spring Moth[1], Heliomata cycladata
These are geometrid moths, with inchworm-type caterpillars that eat – Black Locust leaves! So the adults were probably engaged in laying eggs at the time we found them.
So they are in fact pretty common, but only in areas where either Black Locust or Honey Locust grow. Black Locust leaves are full of toxins (horses that eat the leaves suffer from “anorexia, depression[2], incontinence, colic, weakness, and cardiac arrhythmia”), and it would not surprise me at all if these caterpillars concentrated the toxins into their tissues. In which case, the prominent white patches on the wings of the adult moths may very well be warning coloration. It certainly isn’t very good camouflage.
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[1] Not to be confused with its relative, Heliomata infulata, the “Rare Spring Moth”.
[2] Apparently it is noticeable to people when a horse is depressed.
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