21 October 2013
Monday macrobug: a gorgeous pair of mating moths
Posted by Callan Bentley
I found one of these moths last week while moving some logs around out in the woods. It was a female (based on its antennae), and had a gorgeous color scheme of black and white with a wide yellow ^ on each of its wings, and lovely orange knees. I brought it back to the house to show my son, and then I put it on a low rock wall in our yard. An hour later, I casually checked to see if it was still there, and to my surprise, it had been joined by a second moth of the same species. The new arrival was slightly smaller with big, feathery antennae – the male. They were mating.
Momma in focus:
Daddy in focus:
I spent about two hours trying to identify these moths on websites and with field guides off the bookshelf at home, but to no avail. Anyone have any idea what species they are?
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
Callan, your cool fuzzy creatures are Eastern Buck Moths (Hemileuca maia). I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains and am out hiking very frequently. I’ve been lucky enough to find the Eastern Buck Moth *caterpillar* a few times and have captured 3 of them in pixels. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the beautiful adult moth though. If you do happen to run into one of their caterpillars, beware! As is sometimes the case with caterpillars, these guys will give you a nasty sting.
Aha! Great; thank you so much.
I think I photographed one of the buck moth caterpillars back in August:
https://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2013/08/26/monday-macrobug-spiky-caterpillar/
I really appreciate you ID’ing it for me.
Neato!
Get a cocoon!