The Spanish moon moth was first described in 1849 by Mariano de la Paz Graells y de la Agüera as Actias isabellae. However it was moved to the genus Graellsia, which was created in 1896 by Augustus Radcliffe Grote. It is part of the moth family Saturniidae and often associated with other “moon moths” under Actias although this species split off years ago. It is the only species in Graellsia and has no subspecies, making it a monotypic genus.
Description This moth has green wings with reddish-brown lines and yellow-green hindwing tails. These lines border all four wings and trace over the moth’s veins. The lower edges of both the hindwings and forewings (called the outer margins) are lined with black and the same yellow-green as the tails. This yellow-green is also seen on the forewings close by the moth’s head and on the hindwings in a gradient. Each wing has a magenta, orange, white, and black eyespot in between its veins with the hindwing spots being larger.
The body is yellow-green as well with reddish brown patterning. The antennae can be dark or orangish-brown.
The males have longer tails and bushier antennae while females have stubby tails and larger bodies.
Wingspan Range: 6.35 – 10.16 cm (2.5 - 4 in)
Diet and Habitat The caterpillar of this species eats pine needles, specifically from the Pinus nigra (Austrian Pine) and Pinus sylvestris (Scots Pine), which are native to its habitat. Interestingly, this species doesn’t easlily adapt to eating non-native pine species even if they are from the same genus.
This species is native to Spain and France but is also found in Switzerland. They live in the Alps and the Pyrenees mountains, which are considered a “refugee location.” Due to the cool, dry, and unchanging climate the Spanish moon moth has been able to remain unchanged for thousands of years. It is also a protected species.
Mating Adult moths hatch at the end of April to early May. The females lays 100 to 159 eggs, using pines as host plants. The eggs hatch after 1 to 1.5 weeks. It is important to note that adult from the same family will not mate with each other.
Predators Presumably, this moth uses its eyespots to imitate a larger animal and scare away predators.
Fun Fact A hybrid moth species was created by breeding the Spanish moon moth and the Indian moon moth (Actias Selene).
(Source: Wikipedia, Moth Identification, The Butterfly Babe)
The antler moth is a part of the family Noctuidae. It was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. This moth gets its name from the antler shaped mark in its forewings.
Description This moth species has brown forewings, with a “basal streak” of white that branches out. This mark may vary in size per moth. The forewings show a mirrored pattern of the base brown broken up by the branches and a few spots and lines of lighter brown. The forewing also may or may not have black streaks. The hindwing is dark brown with a white fringe.
Males are smaller than females with fluffier antennae.
Male Wingspan: 27 - 32mm (≈1.06 - 1.26in)
Female Wingspan: 35 - 39mm (≈1.38 - 1.53in)
Diet and Habitat The larva of this species feeds on grasses such as Deschampsia, Sheep’s-fescue (Festuca ovina), Mat-grass (Nardus stricta) and Purple Moor-grass (Molinia caerulea). It has also been found on sedges and rushes. When the larva population is concentrated enough, they can damage pastures. Adults feed on flowers such as thistles and ragworts.
This species is common through most of Europe. It’s northernmost reach is Iceland and above the Arctic Circle. It’s easternmost reach is Siberia and North Mongolia. This moth does not occur in the dry southern regions of Europe. It has been introduced to North America. Additionally, this species inhabits the Alps. They prefer habitats of grassland, favouring acid upland pasture, moorland and downland.
Mating Adult moths are seen flying from July to September. They presumably mate in this time frame.
Predators This moth flies during the day, especially in the north, warm weather, and early mornings, and at night. They are presumably preyed on by both daytime and night time predators like birds and bats. They are attracted to light. To protect themselves during the day, this moth hides in the grass.
Fun Fact The antler moth rises to an altitude of 2100 meters in the Alps.
The Kentish glory was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. It is a part of the family Endromidae which was created in 1810 by Ferdinand Ochsenheimer. This is a monotypic genus, meaning there is only one species in it being the Kentish glory.
Description The male and female of this species are clearly told apart by their colors and size.
Males are darker and more orange than females with feathery antennae
Males hindwings are orange
Females are paler/more washed out in color and larger to carry eggs
The forewings of this moth are a marbled black, orange, and white. The outer edge of the wing called the outer margin is brown with white stripes along the veins. The females hindwings are the same marbled black, brown, and white with a brown edge. The males hindwings are orange with brown markings.
The legs and antennae are black while the thorax is brown and white. The females abdomen is black while the males abdomen is a similar orange to the hindwing.
Sources differ on wingspan range.
Wikipedia: 50 - 70 mm (≈1.97 - 2.76 in)
Butterfly Conservation: Male 27 - 30 mm (≈1.06 - 1.18 in), Female 34 - 39 mm (≈1.34 - 1.54 in)
Diet and Habitat The larvae of this species eats mainly birch (Betula species) but will eat other trees and shrubs such as Alnus, Corylus, Tilia and Carpinus species. Adults do not feed.
This moth’s range used to be much larger, such as living in the southern and western English counties of Kent, Sussex, Berkshire, East Anglia, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire and the southeastern Welsh county of Monmouthsire.
Now this moth is restricted to living in the central and eastern Highlands of Scotland. It is seen in the Scottish counties of Perthshire, Inverness-shire, Morayshire, Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire.
They prefer to inhabit open birch woodland and lightly wooded moorland.
Mating Females use pheromones to attract males, who can detect them from 1-2 km (≈0.62 - 1.24 mi) away.
This species has one single generation per year. The females lay their eggs, which are yellow at first then purplish-brown, in batches of 10-20 eggs on low birch scrub at an average height of 1.2m (≈1.31 yd). They prefer to let them on sheltered, unshaded saplings, usually the first few batches are near where the females emerged. The eggs hatch after 10 to 14 days.
Predators Males usually fly during the day from mid morning to early afternoon while females fly at dusk. Because of this males are presumably preyed on by daytime birds while females are preyed on by bats.
Fun Fact The females do not fly as strong as males due to the eggs they carry as it weighs them down. Females tend to lay their first few batches of eggs close to where they emerged due to this fact.
The salt marsh moth is a part of the family Erebidae. This species was first described in 1773 by Dru Drury. It is also known as the acrea moth.
Description Both male and female moths have white heads, thoraxes, and forewings with a varying pattern of black spots on the forewings, with some moths having no pattern at all. They also share an orange-yellow abdomen with a vertical line of back dots. On the male, the hindwings are the same organge yellow while on females the hindwings are white. Both males and females have three or four black dots on each hindwing.
Wingspan Range: 4.5 - 6.8 cm (≈1.77 - 2.68 in)
Diet and Habitat The caterpillar was first thought to be a pest to salt-grass, but in fact it prefers weeds, vegetables, and field crops such as dandelions, cabbage, cotton, walnuts, apple, tobacco, pea, potato, clovers, and maize. Adults do not feed.
This moth is found in North America, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Colombia, and Mexico. It prefers open habitats such as openings in woods, thickets, farm fields, grasslands, and marshes. It is called the “salt marsh moth” because it is common in coastal salt marshes (tidal marshes) along Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts.
Mating This species of moth does not emit pheromones from the tip of its abdomen but instead from its throat or the to of its abdomen. These moths are seen from May to August but can be seen all year in southern Florida and Texas. It is presumably during May and August they mate in most parts of their range while they mate all year round in Florida and Texas.
Yellowish eggs are laid in clusters on the host plant leaves. Females usually produce 400 to 1000 eggs in one or more clusters. It is possible to find a single egg cluster containing 1200 eggs. Eggs hatch in four to five days.
Predators This species is frequently parasitized as larvae, usually by flies in the Tachinidae family. In Arizona, the most common parasites were Exorista mellea and Leschenaultia adusta while two other parasitic flies were also seen: Gymnocarcelia ricinorum and Lespesia archippivora.
Both the larval and egg stages are oararzitized by Hymenopteran parasitoids such as Apanteles diacrisiae; Therion fuscipenne, T. morio, Casinaria genuina, Hyposoter rivalis; Psychophagus omnivorus, Tritneptis hemerocampae Vierick; Anastatus reduvii; and Trichogramma semifumatum.
A cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus is known to harm this species but there are little data on its importance and effect.
General predators such as lady beetles, softwinged flower beetles, and assassin bugs prey on these caterpillars, but are not thought to have a large impact on population.
Fun Fact This species has 4 subspecies: Estigmene acrea acrea, Estigmene acrea arizonensis (Rothschild, (1910)) (Arizona), Estigmene acrea mexicana (Walker, (1865)) (Mexico), Estigmene acrea columbiana (Rothschild, (1910)) (Colombia).
(Source: Wikipedia, University of Florida, Missouri Department of Conservation)
The hornet moth is a part of the family Sesiidae or the family of clearwing moths. They get their common name predictably from how they mimic the appearance of the hornet. This type of mimicry is called Batesian mimicry, which is when a harmless species mimics the appearance of a unpalatable or defended species to protect themselves from predators. It was first described in 1759 by Carl Alexander Clerck under the name Sphinx apiformis.
Description This moth uses what called Batesian mimicry to resemble the hornet so predators do not want to eat it for fear of being stung. The adult moths have clear wings with yellow and striped black bodies. The number of stripes varies, females have two stripes while males have three. They are about the size of a hornet with the same jerky flight pattern when disturbed. The only difference is the hornet moth has more yellow and lacks the waist between the abdomen and the thorax.
Wingspan Range: 34 - 50 mm (≈1.34 - 1.97 in)
Females are larger than males
Diet and Habitat The larvae eat several species of poplar trees such as apsen (Populus tremula), black poplar (Populus nigra), and goat willow (Salix caprea). They prefer trees surrounded by heavy vegetation as those kinds show more evidence of infestation from larvae burrowing into trees. Adults do not eat.
This moth ranges over mainland Europe, Great Britain, and parts of the Middle East. It had also been introduced to America and Canada. They prefer open habitats such as parks, hedgerows, golf courses, quarries, fens, pond edges, and pits.
Mating The female moths attract males using special posterior glands to emit pheromones, usually soon after emergence. The male doesn’t seem to have any courtship behaviors as the two sexes are likely to begin mating as soon as they come into contact. Both males and females mate multiple times with different partners before the female beings laying her eggs.
Females prefer to lay eggs on old or isolated trees surrounded by vegetation. Females can lay from hundreds to thousands of eggs and exhibits no parental care. When comparing the number of eggs laid to the number of adults emerging per year, it is clear the large number of eggs laid is to make up for the large mortality rate between the egg and adult stages.
Predators This species of moth is primarily preyed on by magpies and great tits. Interestingly, these birds do not eat hornets despite eating this moth. An explanation for this is since these birds don’t eat hornets, the mimicry is less effective as they have any bad experiences with insects of this coloration. In fact, it can be suggested that the black and yellow coloration has the opposite effect: once the birds realize this moth is harmless and can be easily seen, they begin to actively seek them out.
Fun Fact The hornet moth is seen as a pest in the eastern United Kingdom due to a large dieback of poplar trees from larvae burrowing into them. However this dieback is not inherently caused by the larvae but instead from drought and human influences, which the larvae increase the effect of.
The canary-shouldered thorn was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. It is a part of the family Geometridae. This moth gets its name from its bright yellow coloring.
Description This moth has a bright canary yellow head and thorax. The forewings and hindwings are a ochre yellow with gray speckles. Both the forewings and the hindwings are a scalloped shape and both have a single dot on each wing called “discal spots” with the spots being larger on the hindwing. The forewings have two curved lines going across them.
This moth looks very similar to the Dusky Thorn, August Thorn and September Thorn moths.
Wingspan Range: 34 - 42 mm (≈1.34 - 1.65 in)
Forewing Range: 16 - 20 mm (≈0.63 - 0.79 in)
Diet and Habitat The larva of this species feed off of deciduous trees such as downy birch, silver birch, alder, goat willow, elms, and limes.
This moth’s range stretches from Russia and the Caucuses region in the east to Western Europe in the west and from Fennoscandia in the north to the northern Mediterranean in the south. It has also been introduced into British Columbia. The prefer habitats of woodland, scrub, parks and rural gardens.
Mating This moth has one generation per year. They can be seen flying from July and October and presumably mate during this time.
Predators This species is nocturnal and presumably majorly preyed on my nighttime predators such as bats. However it does use a form a camouflage as larva. The caterpillars of this species resemble dead twigs. This may also help against daytime predators.
Fun Fact The canary-shouldered thorn is attracted to light.
(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation, Moths of Britain)
The Macrocilix maia moth is a part of the family Drepanidae. It was first described in 1888 by John Henry Leech as a part of the genus Argyri. It has no recognized common name and is mainly called by its scientific name.
Description
The forewings and hindwings are a matching cream color and slightly translucent. The main attraction of the wings are two mirror images of a fly, one on each forewing. The body of the “fly” is black with red eyes/head and a white accent in the middle of its abdomen. They are outlined in amber and black with amber specks on the outer edge of the forewing called the outer margin. The hindwings have an amber splotch on the innermost edge, called the inner margin, that transitions to black and white as it reaches the corner. This is meant to look like a bird dropping that the flies are eating.
The body is a matching amber/dark brown as the bird dropping to blend in. The antennae are cream.
Wingspan Range: 3.7 - 4.5 cm (≈1.46 - 1.77 in)
Diet and Habitat This moth mainly, feeds on the Chinese Cork Oak as larva and do not feed as adults.
They are found around Asia in Borneo, China, India, Japan, Korea, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Taiwan. This moth prefers habitats like forests and jungles.
Mating The eggs are laid close to the host plant and adults are emerge in May. Mating season is presumably around this time.
Predators This moth is most recognizable by its use of mimicry. It’s wings resemble flies eating bird droppings to make it appear unappealing to predators. It also gives off a bad smell to further sell the act.
Fun Fact The type of camouflage this moths uses is called Batesian mimicry. Named after Henry Walter Bates, Batesian mimicry is when a palatable animal, or one without toxins or poison, evolves to look like an unpalatable/undesirable animal to protect itself from predators.
The red-belted clearwing is a part of the family Sesiidae. It was first described in 1789 by Moritz Balthasar Borkhausen as Sphinx myopaeformis. This was later changed to Synanthedon myopaeformis. This moth is called the red-belted clearwing in Europe, the apple clearwing moth in North America, and the apple borer. This is due to their tendency to damage their host apple trees. It is considered a pest in Europe.
They may be confused with the large red-belted clearwing and the red-tipped clearwing.
Description This moth has a thin, dark blue, segmented body. The body is hairless aside from a bushy tail at the end of the abdomen. They are noticeable due to a bright red-orange band on one of the segments of the abdomen. The wings are clear with a dark outline and veins and a fringe on the outer margin (outer edge). The wings help distinguish the red-belted clearwing from the large red-belted and red-tipped clearwings as the wings have no red-orange markings.
Wingspan Range: 1.8 - 2.8 cm (≈0.71 - 1.1 in)
Diet and Habitat This species eats mainly apple, specifically Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris), as well as Pear (Pryus communis), Hawthorn (Crateagus monogyna), Almond (Prunus dulcis), Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), apricots, cherries, mountain ash, peaches, plums, and quince. In Canada, adult moths have been attracted to the flowers of the snowy milkweed.
They can be found natively in Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor. This species was noticed to North America and first detected in Canada in 2005. They inhabit well established orchards and gardens, hedgerows, open woodland, and mature scrub.
Mating Adults emerge from their cocoons in early summer and on flight from May to August, this is presumably their mating season. Females can lay up to 250 eggs, usually singly in the cracks or damaged areas of the trunk and branches they are hosting in. Females attract males with pheromones released from glands. A 2010 study found that 3,13-octadecadienyl acetate is the primary sex hormone.
Predators The larvae of this moth are preyed on by parasites, fungi, and bacteria. The main parasite of red-belted clearwing larvae is Liotryphan crassiseta. Other parasites are Nematodes, Steinernema sp. The fungi Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium brunneum are common causes of death in larvae as well as the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis.
Fun Fact
The adult red-belted clearwings are significantly less active on cold days compared to warm days.
In 2014, Judd and Eby found that S. myopaeformis does not discriminate between yellow, green and white or between purple, blue, red, and black. This suggests that they are dichromatic, meaning they can perceive mainly two colors. This affected traps set to catch this species as they acted differently depending on the light reflected.
As this species is considered a pest to apple trees, people have attempted to control the population. This has been tried with pheromone/mating disruption, pheromone laced traps, other chemical traps, the use of predators/enemies, and the covering of apple tree trunks in oil.
(Source: Wikipedia [1][2][3], Butterfly Conservation, Michigan State University)
