Silvery-Gray Owlet Moth

2015 June 20

This silver-gray moth was a fairly large specimen (close to an inch long) that came to the porch light on September 7, 2014. I believe it is one of the Owlet moths.

Unfortunately, so far that’s the best I can do. I’ve had zero luck narrowing it down any further.

And, it is quite possible that I’m having trouble because of making a mistake right there at the beginning – what if it isn’t an owlet moth at all? Really, I can’t even fully be sure of that. Although, the fuzzy thorax does tend to be a common feature of owlet moths and other noctuids.

I posted it to BugGuide, but so far there have been no attempts at identifying it. Well, maybe someday something will turn up. Maybe eventually, Google Images will get good enough to actually pattern-match it accurately. And maybe someone will post a picture of this moth, and they will actually know what it is. Given how much both Google’s search capacity and the number of images to find has improved just in the last couple of years, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were able to do it within the decade. But, when I tried it just now, there was no joy in Mudville. Mighty Google has struck out.

Comments are closed.