Black lighting for moths has been a lot of fun over the years, although since Marie's significant decline in her health and eventual passing, I haven't done any black lighting for the past two plus years. But in looking at various file folders with numerous moths shown, I have gotten back into it. So far I have been out to Rondeau, the only place I have done any black lighting in this current year, on five occasions, at three different locations. With the shorter nights, I usually put the lights on at about 9:30 p.m. and stayed until after midnight. On a couple of occasions I stayed out until about 2 a.m., and was tempted to stay until daylight, having an occasional nap in the vehicle if necessary. However the ongoing presence of mosquitoes was just enough to prevent any naps, so packed it in no later than 2.
Each time I was out, I took anywhere from 125-200 photos, many of which were duplicates, but could easily be deleted once I got a closer look at them on the computer. Nevertheless, to date I have probably photographed about 150 species of moths, plus a couple of dozen other creatures that came to the light.
Here are some of the more colourful, even rare, moths that I got photos of. You can get a relative size of each one, based on the size of the weave on the sheet it was photographed on.
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| Abbreviated Button Slug Moth |
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| Angle-lined Prominent |
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| Angus Datana |
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| Baltimore Snout |
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| Basswood Leafroller |
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| Bent-lined Carpet |
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| Bicolored Pyrausta |
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| Common Spring Moth |
This next one is a member of the Crocus Geometer complex, and often cannot be identified to species based on a photo.
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| Dark-spotted Palthis |
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| Dimorphic Tosale Moth |
Next is an Elm Sphinx. Large moths such as sphinx and silk moths are always a highlight.
At the opposite end of the size scale is this next one, a Goldenrod Gall moth.
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Green Leuconycta |
Next is one of the smaller silk moth types. It is a Pink-striped Oakworm Moth, and I am fortunate if I see even one every year, so it is definitely a highlight of the black lighting season.
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| Pink-shaded Fern Moth |
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| Muzaria Euchlaena Moth |
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| Lettered Sphinx Moth |
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| Leafy Spurge Hawkmoth |
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| Hickory Tussock Moth |
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| Spotted Apatelodes Moth |
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| Scarlet-winged Lichen Moth |
Another medium sized silk moth, is the Rosy Maple Moth, shown next. This is more commonly seen than the Pink-striped Oakworm moth above, and I often see 4-5 of these in a season.
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| Purple-crested Slug Moth |
Another highlight is to photograph a large member of the silk moth group. This one, a Polyphemus Moth, came in very briefly at first and never stopped fluttering on the sheet. This next photo of it is the best I could get at first, and is not entirely in focus, nor is it entirely in the photo. It left after a few brief moments, and then returned about an hour later, and even landed on my hat, my shirt and arm, kept moving and I couldn't get a photo of it.
It left again, and then an hour later it came back and landed quietly on the sheet, and remained until I was done for the night.
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| Yellow Slant-line |
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| White-dotted Prominent |
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| Tulip-tree Beauty |
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| Three-spotted Fillip |
And finally, The Badwing.
Taking so many photos and having to process them is definitely time-consuming. I still have lots more already processed, and lots I haven't even started on yet. As the third week of July is considered National Moth Week, I may post some more, or at least feature some of the non-moth creatures that stopped by for a photo shoot.
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