Plume Moth

I found this interesting moth on the wall beside our door. iNaturalist thinks it's a Geranium Plume Moth.

Moths Galore

The last lodge I stayed at in Costa Rica was Bosque de Paz Reserva Biologica. One of the unexpected features here were the moths. The lodge is in the middle of the forest, and its lights were the only ones around, so they attracted all kinds of moths. They had a white sheet on the wall of the main building with a light shining on it to attract even more. Most of the guests were there for the birds, but there was one other couple that were also photographing the moths. We pointed out the good ones to each other.

We're more familiar with butterflies because we see them during the day. And we think of moths as drab gray things. But there are far more kinds of moths, about 160,000 compared to only 11,000 kinds of butterflies (worldwide). And some moths are just as pretty as butterflies. I identified some of them on iNaturalist, but most of the id's haven't been confirmed. Too many kinds of moths, and not enough people that are interested in them.

Here is the largest, most impressive moth I saw. It was bigger than my hand. That's someone's rain jacketed arm that it's sitting on.

While the big moths are impressive, some of the little ones are just as attractive close up.

That's probably more than enough moths for most people. If you want more, they're in the Flickr album.

The light also attracted other kinds of insects. Weevils are funny looking beetles with their long snouts.

Earwigs are also odd looking.

The lodge was in the hills/mountains at about 5000 ft (1500 m) so thankfully there weren't many mosquitos. I found this one perched on a moth.

I was using my usual macro setup - OM-1 camera, 60mm macro lens, and a small led panel light. I usually held the light in one hand and the camera in the other. It's harder to hold the camera steady one handed but it allows adjusting the light much better. When the moths were on a window, it was tricky to avoid reflections. The little led panel doesn't provide a lot of light, so I had the ISO cranked up to 3200. A flash would be a lot brighter and that's what most people use. But it's also much trickier to get good results. One downside of the led panel is that it also attracts the moths.

I thought I did well photographing about 70 different kinds of moths. But recently I read about an insect photographer at a lodge in Borneo that photographed 600 different kinds in a similar period of time!

See all 94 photos in this batch

Many-plumed moth

This moth appeared on the wall beside my desk. It was tiny, a little over 1/4 inch across. I ignored it at first, but then I decided I should at least have a look with a magnifying glass. Some of these tiny moths can be quite pretty when you see them up close. It turned out to be a plumed moth, which is unusual, so I got out the camera and macro lens. iNaturalist identified it as a Montana six-plume moth. At least it wasn't yet another invasive species for a change.

Unlike most moths and butterflies, the wings aren't a "sheet", they're more like feathers. There are only a few species in North America. The caterpillars feed on snowberry bushes, which are quite common around here. The moths overwinter as adults, and the warm weather probably fooled it into emerging. When I came back from supper it had disappeared.

I photographed another plume moth a few months ago but it had its wings folded up so you couldn't see the structure.

Morning-glory Plume Moth

I spotted this unusual moth on the side of the house this morning. I had seen a photo of a similar moth recently or I might not have noticed it. The id was confirmed on iNaturalist. As the name suggests, the caterpillars feed on morning glory flowers (which there are plenty of around here). The wings are unusual, they are more like feathers. In this photo they are folded up.

It's interesting that it has one pair of legs folded back against its body. Some spiders do this to look more like harmless six legged insects. But I'm not sure why a moth would. Maybe they just fold them back to be more streamlined when they are flying.