Another New Moth Species for Canada!

 It was almost exactly a year ago, on September 17, 2019, that I photographed a moth while black lighting at the Moore Wildlife Area, in west central Lambton County. I didn't know what it was at the time, but knew it wasn't something I had seen before. As is usually the case, by the time I down loaded it, processed it and tried to figure out what it was, several days had gone by. I still did not know what it was, so I posted it on BugGuide, hoping that someone more knowledgeable would put a name to it. And someone did. It was believed to be the Liatris Stem Borer (Papaipema beeriana). I posted it on iNaturalist, and the experts there agreed. It was a new species for Canada. Even on iNaturalist, there are only records showing for the states of Wisconsin and Iowa, although with the greater prevalence of the host plant in other states, undoubtedly occurs in greater abundance than those records show.

As you can see, from the human eye perspective, this one isn't especially colourful or attractive, but it is an element of nature just the same. Who knows what important role it plays in nature.

The fact that its larvae specialize in feeding on the endangered Dense Blazing-star (Liatris spicata) only serves to make this moth a little more unusual, and therefore it is not surprising that it has not been found in Canada before.

Dense Blazing-star is limited primarily to the high quality remnant tallgrass prairie regions of Essex and Lambton counties, and while it can be fairly abundant where it occurs, it is very restricted even in these two counties. It is historically known from Chatham-Kent, and although there are records far and wide beyond these areas, they are almost certainly of tallgrass prairie plantings or gardens.

Ojibway Prairie Prov Nature Reserve, Windsor

Dense Blazing-star is most abundant at the Walpole Island First Nation, but black lighting for moths has not been done there very frequently. I did manage to spend a couple of evenings there quite late in the season last year, but not near a site where Dense Blazing-star occurred, and never came across it. That tallgrass prairie plant has been included in various prairie restoration seed mixes, which is not surprising since it is such a pleasing and impressive plant. And it had been planted along with various other tallgrass prairie species a couple of decades ago in the Moore Wildlife Area, so somehow a moth found its way to this prairie patch. As it turns out, this moth has been recorded across the river in Michigan, so it is possible that with the prevailing westerly winds, a moth or two might have come from there, or even from an as yet unknown population at Walpole.

It was just a little over a week ago, on August 25, 2020, that I set up my black lights in the yard at home. Now as much as I like to think my yard is interesting to moths, and I have photographed quite a few different kinds, I always set up my black light in the back yard, where there is access to more vegetation and it is farther away from competing lights. On this night, however, I decided to put up one light in the back yard, and one in the front yard. Going back and forth checking to see what had arrived, I managed to encounter a fairly good diversity of moths, beetles and others. Towards the end of my ~3 hour stint with the black light, I noticed a colourful moth, medium small, come to the white sheet in the front yard. My first inclination was to call it a Raspberry Pyrausta, which I had photographed on occasion in my yard. I almost didn't take this one's photo because of that, but since there wasn't any other moth grabbing my attention, I decided to do it anyway since it was so colourful and cooperative.

Once I got the photos onto the computer and began the processing and labelling procedure, I realized that this one didn't fit the usual Raspberry Pyrausta. I checked the field guide more closely, but did not find it there. I then checked for Pyrausta in the BugGuide database, and there were lots of photos to peruse. And several seemed to match my moth. But when I checked to see the range for that one, it did not show up in Canada. It was known from several states south of the border. I then checked the Moth Photographers Group database, and there were no records from Canada. I checked on iNaturalist, and again, there were no records for Canada. Its range was largely in the states surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, with fewer scattered records north. There were records from as far north as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, but none from New York state, or Michigan. But when I posted it on both BugGuide and iNaturalist, the species was confirmed. It is known as the Coffee-loving Pyrausta (Pyrausta tyralis), and as you can see from the image which follows, is both colourful and fairly distinctive.

Since I am a coffee drinker, and not a beer drinker, I think this one will be my new favourite moth!

One never knows what one will find when the time is spent searching the natural world....it is always an adventure! I think I will keep on black lighting a bit more.......

Addendum: today I got my copy of Ontario Moths: A Checklist, by David Beadle, Michael King and Phill Holder, and which was just published by Hawk Owl Publishing in August of this year. It includes many photos along with the list of 3187 confirmed species of moths for Ontario. My photo of the Dense Blazing-star Borer moth is included, as requested by the authors. As expected, this Coffee-loving Pyrausta is not included, so the moth checklist is already out dated. 

For anyone interested in this Ontario Moths: A Checklist, check it out at www.mattholderfund.com.