#cucumber moth

[onenicebugperday]

@geisterwolf submitted: this lady was moving her butt fluff around when i found her, very interesting to watch! then she got camera shy and flew off to the tomato plants lol

Butt fluff! Very fashionable.

[ljsbugblog]

Cucumber Moth (Diaphania indica), male, April '24.

[rjalker]

Moth!!

A cucumber moth apparently! With slightly transparent wings!

How did it get in my room is the question!

[Image description start. Four photos showing a cucumber moth.

The moth holds its wings flat out to the sides, forming a wide rounded triangle like shape. It's head and a border around all of the edges of its wings is solid black, with the inside sections of the wings and its body white. There are two slightly upraised black sections on the border forming small half circles.

At the end of its tail on either side are too orange pom-pom like features, with some silver and black mixed in. His eyes are solid black and hard to see, and it has extremely thin long antenna they're folded down over its back so that they are almost invisible.

The first photo shows the moth from the side showing that it's tail curves upward like a scorpion.

The second shows it from above with a ruler placed below to show that is almost exactly an inch wide.

In these two photos it is sitting on the orange arm of a camper chair, with four sections on its wings that are slightly transparent showing it as pale pink.

The next photo shows it's sitting on a black sweatshirt, with the transparent sections of its wings now gray.

The last photo shows it's sitting on the inside of a clear plastic container, showing that it's belly and the undersides of its wings are pure white, with some of the black border showing through faintly.

Image description end.]

Update half an hour later: the pom poms mean this is a female looking for a mate! They help spread pheromones so makes can find her! Male moths usually have very wide antenna for this purpose, though I wasn't sure if it was the same for this species :)

[mothgallery]

Day 156

Cucumber Moth

[onenicebugperday]

@oreo-pudding submitted: I originally walked up to take a picture because just thought his wings were see-through, but this was even cooler to see!!!

(In Florida if you want to ID!)

Ohhhh they are dispersing their pheromones by waving their hair pencil! It's either a melonworm moth or a cucumber moth in the genus Diaphania :)

[just-a-tree]

Female Flower-tail or Cucumber Moth (Diaphania indica, Crambidae) by John Horstman (itchydogimages, SINOBUG) on Flickr.