Creatures that saw the light

 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.

Abbreviated Button Slug Moth

Angle-lined Prominent

Angus Datana

Baltimore Snout

Basswood Leafroller

Bent-lined Carpet

Bicolored Pyrausta

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.

Dark-spotted Palthis

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.

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.
 

Pink-shaded Fern Moth

Muzaria Euchlaena Moth

Lettered Sphinx Moth

Leafy Spurge Hawkmoth

Hickory Tussock Moth

Spotted Apatelodes Moth

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.

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. 

Yellow Slant-line

White-dotted Prominent

Tulip-tree Beauty

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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Mid July action

Plants and insects abound right now, providing lots of opportunity to photograph! I've been out regularly, here and there, in the Rondeau area.

Open areas with Common Milkweed and other wildflowers are always good for attracting insects. Along the South Point Trail were things like this American Lady on a Black-eyed Susan.

American Lady

Something that caught my eye was a whole bunch of caterpillars feeding voraciously on some willows. This large distinctive caterpillar is the larva of a Mourning Cloak.

Mourning Cloak larva

Mourning Cloak

On a raspberry leaf, I noted this brightly coloured critter. It is a Red-banded Leafhopper, one of the more bizarrely coloured insects. It is very small, only about 5-6 mm in length, so the way you see it on your screen is several times life size! I find these more often on a milkweed plant than any other species.

A female Eastern Pondhawk was in the area. It is one of the more gorgeous dragonflies, in my opinion.

Other dragonflies were around, including many White-faced Meadowhawks. They would be perched, then dash out before returning. They were catching smaller insects, such as midges and mosquitoes, and are voracious predators.

Here a female of the species chowing down on a recent capture, followed by an 'in-your-face' view.

Woodlands are attractive on a heavily overcast day. I enjoy the Spicebush Trail in these conditions.

The ferns are quite lush at this time of year, with a good diversity: Ostrich Fern, Sensitive Fern, Silvery Spleenwort, Maidenhair Fern, Broad Beech Fern, Marsh Fern, Cinnamon Fern, Royal Fern, Rattlesnake Fern and others are scattered along the trail, sometimes in abundance. A healthy fern diversity means a healthy forest.

Broad Beech Fern

Silvery Speenwort

There is lots of Spicebush along this trail, not surprisingly. Here is a clump of Spicebush stems. Do you see anything else in this photo?

If you look closely on the largest stem, there is a moth. It blends in quite well, and a casual passer-by would easily miss it. It is a moth with the common name of Tulip-tree Beauty.

A common plant in the damp areas of this trail include the Wood Nettle. The flowers are very tiny...not spectacular at all! And yes, being a nettle, the stiff hairs will sting.

Wood Nettle

One reader of a previous post asked why there was no mention of Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) in my post of early season native orchids. Well there are two reasons: first of all it is not a native species, but an orchid that came from Europe. And second of all, at Rondeau it is not an early season orchid. However it is just coming nicely into flower these days, and is quite widespread along this trail. An image is below.

Epipactis helleborine