Soft-Lined Waves, I Think
Here are three more moths that came to the light on June 30, 2012. I think that they are all slightly different color morphs of the same species, they all have similar wavy lines on pale-brown-tending-towards-white wings, with black dots in the center of each wing. The first one is medium brown with fairly distinct lines on the wings:
The second one was very similar, but a bit paler and with less distinct markings:
And the third one was practically white, but still had the black dots (and obligingly moved one wing a bit forward so I could see the black dot on the hindwing).
So why do I think they are all different color morphs of the same species? Well, first of all, when I draw moths to lights, on any given night I tend to get lots of individual moths, but only of the few species that happen to be flying that night. My biased sampling therefore makes it more likely that any given moth I collect will be the same species as other moths coming in at the time, and not a similar but distinct species.
And second of all, there is a known common species (the Soft-Lined Wave, Scopula inductata) that shows a wide range of color variations. And the brownest individuals look like my first specimen, while the palest individuals look like my third one. So, until someone tells me otherwise, I’m going with the Soft-Lined Wave for all three.
These are geometrid moths that are fairly closely related to the Emerald that I posted last time. Their caterpillars are inchworms that eat things like dandelions, asters, clovers, and ragweed.
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