Shapes and sizes

I have really been spending a lot of time going after moths these last few weeks. So many photos to process, so many identifications to make. While the main efforts have been at Rondeau Provincial Park, there have been a few other places that offer wonderful diversity of moths as well, but some of those stories will have to wait for another post. And some of the other places have a lot fewer mosquitoes to contend with!

The blog post previous to the last one, dealt primarily with colours and patterns. This one will deal more with sizes and shapes, although I think you will realize that even looking at these, the colours and patterns are sometimes pretty incredible.

Some have very colourful patterns as caterpillars. For those who spend any time looking at milkweeds, this Milkweed Tussock Caterpillar, facing off with a very young Monarch caterpillar, is pretty distinctive and reasonably colourful.

Not so as an adult. It is about as drab as you might expect for a moth, although the shape is fairly typical of what one might expect.

Some larger than average moths are as follows:

Close-banded Yellowhorn

Crocus Geometer

This Dark-spotted Palthis has a very distinctive, pointed look to it.

Dark-spotted Palthis

This next one is a Four-spotted Fungus Moth. It has a fairly typical shape, but notice the slightly iridescent bluish colour mixed in.

Lost Owlet

This next one is a Spotted Apatelodes, looking a bit like a Sphinx Moth.

But here is a real Sphinx Moth, the Walnut Sphinx. Its larvae feed on a wide variety of other trees as well.

I have only ever seen one of this next one, The Beggar. (Who comes up with these names???)

But so many of the moths are smaller. Much, much smaller. Many are no more than one centimetre in body length, and there are quite a few that are only 5-7  millimetres. Of course the smaller they are, the more challenging they are to photograph, but getting acceptable photos under difficult circumstances is part of the fun!

Black-spotted Leafroller

This next one, the Brown Bark Carpet Moth has a fairly short body of about one cm, but the wing-span is typically 25 mm or more.

There are several in the Datana genus that look quite similar. This one is either a Contracted or a Walnut Datana, and obviously small as it rests on the tip of my finger.

The Filbertworm Moth is about 10 mm.

The Locust Twig Borer is about 12mm

This Brown-banded Lipocosma has a peculiar shape. This is the top view.....

....and this is the side view.

There are quite a few different kind of Grass-veneers. These are sometimes the moths that flutter up briefly while you are walking through grass, and then disappear under a blade of grass.

Gold-stripe Grass-veneer

The Labyrinthe Moth is aptly named.

Another moth with up-swept wings is this Light Marathyssa.

Schlaeger's Fruitworm Moth

One of the more distinctive moths is the Maple Callous Borer. Its heavily veined transparent wings and red, feathery tail tip are distinctive.

There are a whole bunch of Plume Moths, all of which look a bit like a plane. This one is a Plain Plume Moth.

There are a few with arched or hooked wing tips. This one is called the Rose Hooktip.

This Yellow-shouldered Leafroller is about 12 mm long.

This next group shows some of the micro moths, which are truly tiny. The Four-spotted Yellowneck has a much longer name than its body size. It is about 7 mm long.

Orange Virbia

The Orange-headed Epicallima is about 6 mm.

Some moths, like this 6mm long Packard's Caloptila, sit propped up on elongated front legs.

If Rondeau was thoroughly surveyed, there should easily be more than 2000 species. Our efforts so far have resulted in about 500 species photographed, so clearly we have a long way to go. We had hoped to get out the Marsh Trail a few times, as the moth diversity there would likely add quite a few to the list. However with the north end of the trail being washed away, it is unlikely we will get out to survey that habitat complex any time soon without a lot of extra effort.

The most recent field guide only shows about 1500 of the ~5000 species of moth that are known from the northeastern US and southeastern Canada, so although it is a huge help, is is far from complete, and other sources are necessary to use. Fortunately online databases such as BugGuide and iNaturalist will help fill in the gaps.

Stay tuned for more moths coverage. Given the extremely hot and humid conditions of late, at least spending time after dark photographing moths is a little more comfortable than doing much field work during most of the daylight hours!

Recent Non-mothing Highlights

I'll get back to some moth features in a future post. But I have been out looking and finding other flying creatures and things, during the daylight hours!

Butterfly counts are just around the corner, and recently I stopped in at the Reid Conservation Area which always has a good variety of butterflies at this time of year. Hairstreaks are always fun to look for. There is usually no shortage of Banded Hairstreaks. I think I counted at least 8 on this day.

The main target species, and highlight, was to see not one, but three Oak Hairstreaks, as shown in this next photo.

There were several other species of butterfly that I saw over the couple of hours I spent here, but only photographed one other species, this European Skipper,

Southern Chatham-Kent is often the direction I head. A stop in at the Keith McLean Conservation Lands can yield some surprises. There was a couple of White-faced Ibis that showed up briefly a few days ago, but due to a commitment, I was unable to make the trip that day and so missed them. I have seen them in Manitoba, but never in Ontario. Chances are they might still be around, somewhere, but they can be in the most difficult wetland habitats to access. But during the couple of times I have been there since, there have been a few things to enjoy.

This Northern Map Turtle was surprisingly tolerant of my presence.

This Dunlin is either a very late migrant, or a failed nester that decided to return to southern Ontario.

Great Egrets don't nest in the immediate vicinity, but one or two are often found at this time of year.

Like the Dunlin, this Least Sandpiper is a little atypical for the time of year.

A male Lesser Scaup is a little unusual.

Monarch butterflies have not been very plentiful this year so far, in my experience. This one was feeding on some Canada Thistle along the edge of 'Lake McLean'.

Continuing on a bit of a butterfly theme, I came across these while roaming the southern part of Rondeau.

Hobomok Skipper

Common Buckeye

Mourning Cloak

The east side of the South Point Trail continues to be quite wet in places. Rubber boots are necessary, as there was up to 10 cm of water in places. Therefore it wasn't entirely unusual to see shorebirds along the trail, including a couple of Spotted Sandpipers.

I was also on the lookout for Northern Mockingbird, at least one pair of which has been seen regularly just before the last cottage along Lakeshore Road. I got some decent photos, with a bit of patience.

While this pair seems to be consistently between the last cottage and the Beach Access #11, I was surprised to see a pair of them about 500 metres south, just a bit north of the Light Beacon. It was only a couple of hours later, which made me wonder if there was a second pair, or the first pair decided to wander.

One of my favourite June wildflowers, Wood Lily, was in full bloom in the semi open woodland edges.

While hiking along the southeast beach dune area, one will come across a few scattered clumps of this next species.

Prickly Pear Cactus

It should be made known that while this species is legally endangered in Ontario, it does not occur naturally at Rondeau. Some well-meaning individual(s) planted about a dozen small clumps in various places along this beach dune area back in the mid 1990s. It creates a dilemma: should one accept the planting of an endangered species into a natural area of a natural environment park, especially in a habitat that itself is endangered? Or should they be removed? So far they've been left alone over the last 25 years, but they are expanding and who knows what kind of impact they will have on this endangered vegetation ecosystem in the future.

There are many species of plants which are non-native to the park. In some of the former cottage lots where the cottages were removed years ago, there are many non-native plants of various types that persist, and even thrive. One of them is in flower right now, and is rather showy. It is known as Beautybush.

Even though it is not native, some types of wildlife have found it useful. This first image shows a moth a type of Looper, resting on it.

Meanwhile another moth, the Snowberry Clearwing, is seen sipping nectar from the abundant flower clusters.

As this post ends with moths, the next post will likely begin with moths.

And Happy Birthday Canada!