red-winged wave ~ 04/15/14 ~ Pinnacles

red-winged wave

Dasyfidonia avuncularia

Paul had just finished telling me about another day-flying moth that looks like an x-large Annaphila, when one kindly obliged and landed in front of us.  It was roughly the size between crescents and coppers, which also look superficially similar.  The Annaphila I've seen recently are at least half the size of this.

moths ~ 09/28/13 ~ Rocky Creek

 

Here are all the moths from night 2 of white sheet lighting.  Again, I'll add the moth IDs at a later time.  I welcome anyone who wants to help me ID these coastal moths in the comments.

I'm surprised at how sentimental I became while sorting through these moth photos.  The feeling reminds me of "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  My only published papers were 6 checklists of moths with Sonja Teraguchi.  I googled to see if it's out there on the internet, since the pubication predates Y2K.  Hey, it's on eBay.  Cool.  I think?  It's also referenced in a paper by Roy Rings in The Great Lakes Entomologist.  Very cool.

moths ~ 09/27/13 ~ Rocky Creek

 

I'll add the moth IDs at a later time.  Thanks to Pete at Essig, I borrowed Moths of Western North America by Jerry Powell and Paul Opler.  It's a spendy tome at $100 a pop, so I wanted to take a good look before I purchased.  I haven't had the patience to sit down with the hefty book, yet.  If anyone would like to help get the ID ball rolling, please comment.

geometrid moth
probably Stenoporpia pulmonaria

geometrid moth

Nepytia lagunata (or possibly N. umbrosaria)

green pug moth
Pasiphila rectangulata

This will be the last moth post for a while. I was still homebound at this point (photos taken on 05/13/11) and was starting to get bored, so I took pictures of some moths in our stairwell. Once again, Chris Grinter of The Skeptical Moth gave me his best guesses for the first two moths from e-mailed photos. I think he was correct with the Stenoporpia sp., although he expressed some uncertainty. This is not a typical moth found in our stairwell and did not move from its spot on the wall for at least 3 days... that is, until I poked it to make sure it was still alive - it promptly fluttered around and found a new spot to rest. For the second photo, Chris wasn't as sure as to which of the two Nepytia spp., because both are known from the Central Coast of CA and are very similar. I picked N. lagunata as more likely due to the way it rests it wings compared to N. umbrosaria. It's extremely common in our stairwell for the past month. As for the last photo, if anyone can help me ID this geometrid, please comment. I lightened the pictures a little, because with no flash they were a little dark. However, I did not aline or rotate the photos, since I suspect many moth species have a tendency to rest in a particular direction on a vertical surface.

ps - I originally posted the last picture as an unidentified geometrid moth. Thanks to Jennifer's comment below, I think we have a positive ID. Click on the embedded links in the common and scientific names for more pictures and information.

Geometridae

Who says butterflies are more beautiful than moths? I don't have a good ID book for western moths, so I'm hesitant to make a guess as to species.

ps 03/07/10 - It's always nice to hear someone else also has trouble identifying something, especially an expert. Art Shapiro who helped me with a couple blue butterfly IDs says this, "I won't hazard an ID of your green Geo either, not knowing the fauna in your region."