Creatures That Saw The Light, Part I....

 ...and came to check it out! Of course I am talking about black lighting, mainly for moths, but also for whatever creatures of the night are drawn to the brightly lit white sheet. It is always amazing how these interesting critters respond to the wavelengths of light that are not as well seen by humans. Just another fascinating aspect of nature!

Moore Wildlife Area is a fascinating area more or less in central Lambton County, owned/managed by the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority. I had the privilege of setting up my black lights there on three different occasions this year. A couple of times were just from the parking lot, but that is pretty good in itself. In fact I found the first Canadian record of a moth there last year, right at the parking lot. 

With the Sydenham River traversing this wildlife area, and this river is well known for rare aquatic species, I did set up on one occasion right along the edge of the river, which included an overlook of the river and had good visibility to the woodland as well. I came across, and photographed, well over 100 species of moths, as well as a variety of non-moth species. Some moths were rather worn and difficult to identify, so the totals may increase as people much more expert than I am, eventually identify them on iNaturalist or Bugguide. At any rate, what follows is a few of some of the more colourful or patterned moths. They are shown in alphabetical order based on their common name.

I thought this first one, an American Idia, was really nicely patterned and showed well on the piece of wood that it came to visit nearby. Not all moths land on the white sheet, but may land on a nearby tree or even on the ground or grass.

Arcigera Flower Moth

Close-banded Yellowhorn

On the evening I set up by the river, the midges were quite abundant. It was sometimes hard to get a photo of a moth, such as this Common Lytrosis, without being deluged with midges!

Common Spring Moth

This next one is probably a Crocus Geometer. There is another one in that complex that is sometimes difficult to separate, and some moth-ers lump them together. But I think this one is pretty colourful and relatively distinctive with this pattern.

I always like seeing this next one come in to the light. It is delicate, as its name states, and the golden yellow edge to the wing and the head is quite attractive.

Delicate Cycnia

Dimorphic Macalla Moth

Fervid Plagodis

Green Leuconycta

Gray Marvel

You have likely all seen those Woolly Bear caterpillars crawling around late in the season. Well if they survive and turn into adults, this is what they will look like, and are known as the Isabella Tiger Moth.

Julia's Dicymolomia

Lappet Moth

Large Maple Spanworm

Least-marked Euchlaena

Little Virgin Tiger Moth

This next one is very small, as you can see by the nymphal form of the midges in close proximity. It is the Metallic Casebearer.

Oak Leaf Shredder

Pearly Everlasting

Pink-barred Pseudostrotia

The Silk Moths always garner attention, and are a highlight to have come in to the light. This one did come in to the light, but eventually landed on the grass, and then for the longest time, clung to the bottom of a nearby tree. It is a Polyphemus Moth, and one of the largest of the large silk moth group with a wing span of up to 15 cm (6").

Red-fringed Emerald

The Papaipema genus is fascinating, and fun to try and figure out. It was a member of this genus that I photographed in 2019, that turned out to be the first record for Canada. The one shown next is more distinctly marked, and is known as the Rigid Sunflower Borer.

Sparganothis Fruitworm Moth

White-spotted Leafroller Moth

As mentioned, there are always a few non-moth creatures that come to the white sheet. Here are a few. Some are really small, like this first one, the Citrus Flatid Planthopper.

The occasional Deer Fly, shown next, stopped in, but they don't seem to be interested in biting after dark.

Fire-coloured Beetle

There were several leafhoppers on most nights, and they are all small, with some only about 5 mm in total length. This one doesn't have a common name, but is called Ponana quadralaba.

Northern Flatid Planthopper

This next one is known as Say's Mantidfly. It is considered fairly rare in Ontario. I have had them come to lights at several locations.

Not sure who comes up with names. This next one is the Two-spotted Slope-rumped Beetle.

Two-striped Planthopper

A peculiar looking beetle is this next one, a weevil in the Curculio genus. The very long snout is used to penetrate things like acorns.

Late Season Backyard Wildlife in Macro Mode

The ongoing warm weather has certainly been a boon for insects. So I have been busily photographing whatever I can find in my yard and immediate area. This colourful Orchard Spider was in our rain barrel.

On our continuing tomato plants was this Tobacco Hornworm, the larval form of the Carolina Sphinx Moth.

 The 'horn' at the tail end is where it gets part of its name.

On some late flowering goldenrod were a number of wasps, but they were more interested in sipping the nectar than they were about my camera lens bearing down on them at close range.

Northern Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus)

A Spotted Beet Webworm was visiting the Echinacea. There are still quite a few flowers of the Echinacea in good condition, with more developing heads that will likely continue until the weather takes a serious turn for the cold. As noted in my previous post, there are still butterflies congregating on the Echinacea. It is not surprising to find Painted Ladies and Peck's Skippers still feasting on them, with the occasional Common Buckeye and more numerous Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur and Clouded Sulphur in the vicinity.....as well as Monarchs.

Spotted Beet Webworm

Speaking of Monarchs, they are still developing! I had this one form a chrysalis not that long ago, and it finally emerged in due time.

 It is interesting to see the chrysalis case turn clear, showing the folded up adult inside. When it gets to this stage, it is typically ~24 hours until the adult emerges, usually within an hour or two of first daylight.

 The frustrating thing is that the actual emergence can happen in as little as a minute or even less! There has been more than one occasion when I was keeping a close eye on the chrysalis only to step away for perhaps less than 10 minutes and when I returned, it was out with partially opened wings. But for those who have watched this more successfully, it is said to take less than a minute, sometimes no more than 30 seconds. The wings begin to unfold shortly after emergence.

 Eventually the wings are fully extended, and the butterfly spends an hour or two waiting for the fluid it has pumped into the wings to dry and harden, allowing the stiffness required for flight.

After this Monarch finally got its wings spread and dried and ready to fly, it took flight for a ways only to return and land on my shirt. After a minute or so, it then flew off for good. Although it seems a tad late for this stage of monarch life, there are still some in the chrysalis even now. My next door neighbour had a caterpillar on one of several milkweed plants in his yard up until a few days ago, and now has a chrysalis hanging on a wire beside the house. It has been in that form for about a week. I check it every morning, and it could emerge any day now.

Blacklighting after dark is always an adventure. Each time is different. On this occasion when I had the light set up in the back yard for about two hours, it was great to see such diversity of insects arrive at the white sheet. One of the most peculiar critters was this Nut or Acorn Weevil (Curculio sp).

Chickweed Geometer (Haematopis grataria)

Crane Fly

Dingy Cutworm (Feltia jaculifera)

Greater Black Dart (Xestia dolosa)

 This next one is a type of Green Lacewing, perhaps the Golden-eyed Lacewing (Chrysopa sp).

 

I had seen the following things in the garden earlier, but didn't know at the time what left them. They are the eggs of a Green Lacewing.

Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba)

 An unexpected but significant visitor was this next one: a Round-tipped Conehead (Neoconocephalus retusus). According to the accepted range maps in a couple of my grasshopper/katydid reference books, it doesn't occur in Ontario or even Canada, and I wondered if it was something else. It does occur both to the east and west of Chatham-Kent at a somewhat similar latitude, however, so not beyond the realm of possibility. I posted it on BugGuide and an orthopteran (grasshopper/cricket/katydid) specialist from the New England states confirmed its identity, so this could possibly be the first Canadian record.

 This next one is anything but rare. It is the Striped Cucumber Beetle (Acalymma vittatum).

 Although insect activity is winding down as the weather approaches more normal condition, undoubtedly there will be more opportunities to capture some late season critters on digital film....stay tuned!