White-Ribboned Carpet Moth

2016 February 10

This black-and-white moth came to the porch light on June 15, 2015. Well, not entirely black-and-white, it has bluish-gray highlights and brown edging on the dark region that are kind of attractive.

This was another one that was findable with the Google Image Search/BugGuide combination: it is the White-Ribboned Carpet Moth, Mesoleuca ruficillata

These appear to be reasonably common moths throughout the Midwest, also ranging up the East Coast to Canada, and across to the Pacific Northwest. Their caterpillars are green inchworms with yellow spots running down their back. They like Birch and Raspberry leaves. And given that Birch and Raspberry are not exactly close relatives, the caterpillars probably eat a lot of other things too that they just haven’t been noticed on yet. They mature fast enough to have two generations, so the adults are likely to be spotted both in the early summer (like this one) and in the fall.

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