What's Your Nature?

Become a Nature Up North explorer to share your encounters with wild things and wild places in New York's North Country. Post your wildlife sightings, landscape shots, photos from your outings, and even your organization's events!

Year of the Moth

Posted by Pamela Cubberly,
North Country explorer from Grosse Pointe, MI
July 11, 2015

What a delight to arrive at our cabin with my two great nephews in July only to find this lovely and huge Luna Moth (large green moth photo) on the ceiling of our front porch! In the following week, we thoroughly enjoyed a variety of beautiful (both strikingly colored and subdued) moths, from the tiny to the huge by leaving the porch light on all night. Using a newly purchased Peterson's guidebook to moths, I was able to identify the following correctly: Luna Moth, Modest Sphinx Moth, Yellow-Collared Scape Moth, LeConte's Haploa, and a Rusty Tussock Moth caterpillar. I was amazed at the variety of colors, sizes, and shapes of moths and that many species specialize in the species of plant food source. I am delighted to know that the night time can produce just as enjoyable species variety in moths as I enjoy in butterflies and dragonflies during the day! (Comments welcome if I have misidentified any of the moths in my photos.)

Comments

Jacob Malcomb

Great photos! Last year I saw several luna moths around the North Country, but haven't yet this year. I find it interesting how colorful and decorated tussock moth caterpillars can be, but how relatively drab they are as moths.

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Erika Barthelmess

Such nice photos of very neat and beautiful animals! Thanks for sharing.

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