While I’m all done with the moths from May 26, 2012, there was one thing that wasn’t a moth that was also on the wall (although it may or may not have been drawn to the light). It’s a pillbug, AKA roly-poly, AKA woodlouse, AKA potato bug . . .
And now it’s time to wrap up the moths that came to the light on May 26, 2012, with a last few micromoths with varying degrees of identifiability. First up is this one:
I actually had pictures of this species or one of its relatives once before: it looks like a moth in the genus Hydriomena. I wasn’t quite able to identify it more than this last time, and can’t really narrow it down further now, either. The picture came out sharper this time, though.
The next of the May 26, 2012 moths is this fine fellow, with his hunchback, his broad pale stripe going back from the head, and his elongated wing spots.
This is about as good of a match as one could ask for to the Cattail Borer, Bellura obliqua. And his feathery antennae mark him as a male.
Our next moth from May 26, 2012 is this gray specimen with brown streaks and a half-moon spot in the middle of its wings.
Trying to sort out what it was, I was deceived by two things:
(1) I was looking for a moth with that same pose, with the wings tented over its back, and
(2) I was expecting something with a “feathered” wing trailing edge, like this:
Our next moth drawn to a light on May 26, 2012 is this rather attractive white, triangular moth with black speckles. It is almost a perfect match for the pale bluish-white paint on our barn wall.
The pattern on the wings is muted, but kind of distinctive. We can just barely see here how, like all butterflies and moths, the pattern is made by a mosaic of tiny, differently-colored scales.
Next up from the May 26, 2012 moths that came to the light is this dark gray, very fuzzy moth. Even fuzzier than usual, I mean. The head is fuzzy, the body is fuzzy, the abdomen is fuzzy, even the edges of the wings are fuzzy.
This moth from May 26, 2012 looks to me like one of the “Carpet Moths”. The picture isn’t as blurry as it looks at first, the moth actually looks that blurry in real life.
After spending some time browsing possibilities, I tentatively propose that it is a Powdered Bigwing[1], Lobophora nivigerata. Probably a female, based on how thin the antennae are and how thoroughly hidden under the wings they are.
Continuing with the moths that came to the light on May 26, 2012, here are a couple of moths that are obviously closely related. One is darker gray with wings that look almost like they are made out of feathers:
So, on May 26, 2012, I got out our extension-cord “trouble light”, put in a daylight-spectrum fluorescent light, and set it up to shine on the broad, flat surface of the west side of our barn all night. May is a very mothy time of year for us, and we got a lot of moths, and in the next few weeks I’m going to be going through them in more or less the order I photographed them. Starting with this one:
We did another insect presentation at the Portage Lake Public Library on August 23, 2012, and to prepare for it we went out the previous evening with a sweep-net and a couple of insect cages to round up a bunch of random bugs from the tall grass. Caught a lot of stuff, too. Including several dozen of these predatory bugs:
