Mostly Moths

There are lots of species of moths. According to WI-Moth-Checklist-June-2018.pdf (wisentsoc.org) there are 1284 moth species living in Wisconsin. The article of this WEB site lists every one of them. There are somewhat fuzzy pictures of some of them.

My walk up the hill North of College Avenue is the best for seeing moths of several varieties. In the last weeks as I walk the moths that are generally under the leaves along the trail scatter as I go by and race to find another leaf to hide under. Almost all are less than 3/4 inch in length and many are smaller. Sometimes they land in the open and can be seen. Identification is a challenge. A few I’ve found but most are just ‘little moths’. In the photographs which follow there are several new ones and maybe a few I’ve shown before. Identify a moth | Butterfly Conservation (butterfly-conservation.org) is a good moth identification site.

Following the moths are a couple of photos of the one Monarch Butterfly caterpillar I’ve seen. This one was in a area close to the Nature Center and apparently those in that area get taken by (I hope) well meaning people who put them in boxes to mature and change to a butterfly.

Leconte’s Haploa Moth is a master in trigonometry using both its body shape and wing pattern to showcase triangles in many ways. Four of these were seen on the College Avenue hill last week.

These are about 1 inch long. I saw several for 2 or 3 days then none. I thought it would be easy to find but ‘no’.

Prior to this year I saw maybe 4 plume moths in 10+ years. This year, in the last few weeks, I’ve seen at least 5.

This one was about 3/16 of an inch long.

Moth or butterfly? It’s wing looks like a moth.

Orchard Ermine?

This is really tiny … maybe 1/8 th of an inch long. It may be a moth.

This is their usual location.

Monarch Butterfly caterpillar on a Milkweed leaf. The water is from rain.

They are rather spectacular.

This I’ve added as a sample of human nature. Our choir director was accompanying a violinist at our church service. I can ‘read’ some level of vocal music but to play the piano accompaniment while keeping in sync with the violinist is truly a wonder of nature.