Some recent highlights of Newport Forest

 Newport Forest is ~45 ha (110 ac) along the south side of the Thames River, a bit downstream from Wardsville. It was always a mix of farmland and forest in its post-settlement days, with several creek systems meandering through on their way to the Thames. In 2000, it was on the market and Kee Dewdney and his wife Pat, acquired it for the purpose of retaining and restoring it closer to its natural environment. One of their goals was to document every living thing that could be found on the property and, with the help of others, have an amazing list of organisms.

A few years ago Kee and Pat transferred the title to the Thames Talbot Land Trust. The documentation of species and the overall management of this site continues. It is a private site with access only by permission. If you are interested in knowing more about the human and natural history of this site, as well as the Thames Talbot Land Trust, check out this link.

One of the things that highlights this site in spring is the impressive display of Virginia Bluebells. I have been there on several occasions to see the bluebells, and had featured this in an earlier blog post which you can check out here. 

 

I was invited there again this past July 4, but not to enjoy the bluebells. They were finished for the season weeks ago. The purpose this time was to document as many moth species as I could attract to my sheet. This would be the fifth time beginning in 2018 where I had set up one or more sheets in order to sample the moths. Since this coming week, from July 17-25, is National Moth Week, I thought it opportunistic to feature (mostly) some of the diversity of moths that I photographed that evening. With the breeding bird season winding down, although I really liked the image of the Acadian Flycatcher at the head of my blog for the past few weeks, I decided to change it to a very distinctive moth, the Spiny Oak-slug Moth, photographed at Newport.

The lights were on two different sheets, a few dozen metres apart and facing different directions. Due to the time of year, it wasn't really dark enough to put them on to any great effect until about 9:45 p.m. We had them on until about 12:15 a.m. Weather conditions are always a factor, and indeed we had to postpone our original night of a couple of weeks earlier due to the uncertain, and less than ideal, weather forecast. But on this night it was about as good as it can get: the temperature ranged from about 21-25C, there was high humidity and no wind. On top of that, there were no mosquitoes!

At the outset there were 6 of us to enjoy the show, but some had to leave a bit earlier than others, so they missed two of the larger moth highlights that came later to the party.

And so on with the show! In the ~2.5 hours that the lights were on, I managed to photograph over 100 species of moths. Given how fast and furious they were coming in at times, not to mention the fact that many are very small and could get easily missed with all the moth action, I strongly believe that there were likely a couple of dozen more that came and were not photographed. However, here are some of the most colourful or distinctive ones. They vary considerably in size, and you may be able to get a relative size of each of them based on the size of the weave of the sheet. Click on any photo to see it a bit larger.

Abbreviated Button Slug

American Lappet Moth

Aproned Cenopis

This next one is always a favourite to see. It gets its name, Banded Tussock Moth, due to the jagged bands going across its wings, as well as the shorter turquoise and pale yellow bands just behind its head.

Beautiful Sparganothis

There aren't any bogs nearby, but this next one is named the Bog Lygrophia.

Canadian Petrophila

An aquatic type of Crambid moth, this next one is the Chestnut-marked Pondweed Moth

Confused Eusarca

This next one is quite tiny. It is the Cream-edged Dichomeris.

Delicate Cycnia

Some don't have a widely known common name, as is the case for this next one. It just goes by its scientific name: Dichomeris ventrellus.

When you are walking through the grass and a small moth appears, flutters away and disappears beneath a blade of grass, it is likely a member of the Grass-veneer group. This next one is the Double-banded Grass-veneer.

Feeble Grass Moth

Forest Tent Caterpillar

Green Leuconycta

One of the highlights for any moth-er is to encounter one of the Underwing group, which often have brightly coloured hind wings that really get your attention when they are in flight. This next one is a Hawthorn Underwing, giving a glimpse of its orange and black hind, or under, wing.

Hickory Stem Borer

Identifying moths can be enormously challenging, even when there is a good field guide available. The colours and patterns are based on the tiny scales on the wings, which show wear and tear all too soon. And some species, like this next one, normally has quite a variety of colours and patterns even when it is fresh. These next three images are all of the same species, known as the Large Lace-border Moth,

At times there was quite a conglomeration of moths on the sheets, even in close proximity to each other. This next photo shows one example, and includes four of the species already featured above. Can you name them all?

Large Maple Spanworm

Lesser Maple Spanworm

Lobed Plume Moth

Mint-loving Pyrausta

This next one is extremely tiny, at  merely 4-5 mm. In fact if it hadn't been for the dark patch in the middle of its closed wings, I could easily have missed it altogether on the white sheet. It is a member of the White Eye-capped Moth group. I haven not been able to come up with a species name yet.

Pink-barred Pseudeustrotia

Red-fringed Emerald

Just before midnight, when the last two of our original group of six were thinking about packing it in, this large silk moth came fluttering in. It refused to land on the sheet, but kept fluttering along the ground, even bumping into us and then disappearing for a few moments. I got one quick shot when it lay on the ground for a couple of seconds.

Eventually it returned and decided to hang up under one of the wooden benches close by. It is a Polyphemus Moth, with an open wingspan of 100-150 mm.

Over my mothing time, I have photographed about 700 species. But considering there are over 3300 species in Ontario, there is a strong likelihood of finding a new one on any given outing, and this next one is an example of that. It is called the Sharp-lined Yellow.

Straight-lined Plagodis

The moths don't always come to the sheet. Sometimes they alight on something nearby, such as the Polyphemus Moth did. Or in the case of this next one, it landed at the edge of the wheel-well of my vehicle.

The Saw-wing

Three-patched Bigwing

Names are quite intriguing, but not surprising since there are over 3300 species in Ontario alone, and believed to be over 160,000 species in the world. It must be hard to come up with meaningful names at times. I'm not sure what this next one did to deserve its name, the 'Ugly-nest Caterpillar Moth'.

Walnut Caterpillar

Just as we were packing up things, this next moth came to one of the sheets. Like the Polyphemus Moth, it fluttered and bounced around, getting caught in the grass at times, but we waited it out. It eventually came to rest on the sheet, so naturally we were able to get some photos. This is a Walnut Sphinx.

There are lots of critters that come to the lights besides moths, but moths were our main focus. However here are a couple of other things that caught our attention. This first one is a member of the Tabanid group, those biting deer flies that can be so annoying on hot sunny days. This one was content just to rest on the sheet....

...as was this large Reddish-brown Stag Beetle. It arrived shortly after we put the lights on, and remained for the entire time. In fact it was hard to get it to release its grip when we took the sheet down, but it was better left at Newport rather than taking it home.

We hope to have another moth night, perhaps in August at a time which we have not sampled before.

Additional note: Please be advised that if you are a subscriber to this blog, the blog site has indicated that sometime after July it will no longer be providing automatic email notices of when this blog is published. I will try and get a subscriber's list assembled and let you know, but in the meantime, if you would like to be advised of the publication of future posts of Nature Nuggets, let me know via this email: prairietramper@gmail.com.

The blog post appears to still have the email subscription function. The blog feeder has just indicated that it will discontinue after July.

 

Early season black lighting

 I had planned to post a few times over the last few months, to feature moth images and highlight some of the finds of late last year. Not sure where the time went, and my spring posts so far have mostly featured migrating birds, and spring wildflowers. However I will take a short break from that theme. Before the spring gets too far along, I want to feature some moths of 2021. The nights have not been great, overall, but on some evenings there has been a bit of action, even back in March. I have had the light set up in the back yard a few times, with only moderate success so far.

Earlier this week Kevin and I set up our lights at Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park, in eastern Chatham-Kent. It is a great spot for all sorts of reasons, and I always enjoy poking around the various habitats. Last year we didn't attempt any black lighting there until later in July. Our priority was to black light at Rondeau as much as possible, but by July the mosquitoes were making it quite unbearable, so we moved our efforts to Clear Creek, and found there were no mosquitoes after dark at all! What a contrast, and a delight!

Since we didn't start until July last year, clearly we had missed the early season moths, so it was time to catch up with them. It is a tad warmer in spring than at Rondeau, simply because Rondeau is affected by the cooler temperatures from the lake and bay that surround it, whereas Clear Creek Forest is a couple of kilometres inland from the lake.

Our first effort at Clear Creek was fairly satisfying. We had three lights and white sheets set up along the trail, and got about 25 species of moth in about 2.5 hours. I'm sure if we had stayed a few more hours there would have been more, but when one gets up relatively early for birds, one cannot stay out too late for moths!

Here are some of the more distinctive moths, many of which looked quite fresh and clean so were likely recent emergent individuals rather than over wintering individuals I suspect. Clicking on the image will make it larger and easier to appreciate the finer details of these delicate creatures.

This first one is an Apical Prominent, and clearly has an atypical shape, at least compared to many moths.

Bicolored Woodgrain

 This next one, the Brown-collared Agonopterix, is quite small, being only about one centimetre in length.

Canadian Melanolophila

Clover Looper

Distinct Quaker

This next one is the Double-lined Gray. A closer look at this fresh specimen shows some linear warm brown markings which can be distinctive, along with the white spot towards the outer edge of the wings.

Honest Pero

I think this next one is quite striking. It is the American Lappet Moth. While it is not uncommon, I have only seen and photographed it on one other occasion.

Linden Prominent

The emeralds are quite attractive. This one is the Red-fringed Emerald, with the first photo showing its more common pose. The second image is the same individual, but one does not often see it posed like this.

Reddish Speckled Dart

Small Engrailed Moth

The following individual is a Tawny Pug. It isn't particularly rare, but is the first time I have seen and photographed it. The body is quite short, about 7 mm in length, but the wing span at about 20 mm is impressive for the overall size of it.

Toothed Brown Carpet

Not all of them come to the lit up sheet. Some will alight on the tripod holding up the black light, and are much more difficult to see and photograph. This fresh looking individual is a Variable Carpet Moth, again, the first time I have seen and photographed it.

These are just a hint of what is to come. I intend to set up my black light at various spots again in 2021. Some will be the same as in previous years, but perhaps at a different time to see what comes in. I have a couple of new spots in mind, one in particular looks like it has an unusual habitat mix, and could provide some really interesting critters. Having found two new species for Ontario in the last year or two, I am hoping the trend continues and more new species will show up. 

There are more than 3200 species of moth known for Ontario, and with the level of interest shown in this group over the last few years, undoubtedly more are likely to be discovered. Stay tuned!