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Late Summer Luna Moth

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

Twelvestones, Roswell, GA, USA | August 22, 2010

I spotted this luna moth while returning from a walk in a nearby park. It was at the base of some landscape timbers, maybe having just eclosed. I coaxed it onto a finger and brought it home. I picked these grass blades as a perch and took a variety of photos.

After dark I found a spot where I could get the nearly full moon in the photo. There’s no way to get both the moth and the moon in focus at the same time, so I simply took one photo with the moon in focus and another with the moth in focus, and then combined them digitally. read more

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Identification Challenge #1 Reveal

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

Maybe I made the first identification challenge too hard. No one even ventured a guess in the comments in the two months since I posted it. Here’s the image again:

May 23, 2010 | Twelvestones, Roswell, GA, USA | ~10mm

Here’s another view that might make it a bit easier.

This is the egg mass of an eastern tent caterpillar. Next spring, I should see the distinctive webbing on the cherry tree in my backyard where I found this. There’s hundreds of eggs here, but last time I checked it, it was looking a bit worse for wear. The varnish so clearly visible here has worn and chunks of the mass are missing. Perhaps some eggs were parasitized and the parasites have since exited. read more

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Resigned Parasitized Caterpillar

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

September 5, 2010 | Twelvestones, Roswell, GA, USA

This caterpillar from a nearby park with head held low seems resigned to its fate as a parasitoid host. OK, I know that’s a normal position — allow me to anthropomorphise a bit.

You can see some white eggs on its back. I assume a tachinid fly left those, placing them close enough to the head that they couldn’t be removed.

In this next image, you can see there are also some already hatched eggs, sealing this little guy’s doom.

Closeup showing hatched eggs

I know tachinid fly larvae have breathing tubes that pierce the host’s skin. Could those long fibers amongst the eggs be those breathing tubes? I wouldn’t think they would be so long. I’m more inclined to think those are just bits of debris that maybe got stuck to whatever holds the eggs in place. read more

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Moth Face

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

January 25, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

I like the beard.

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White-marked Tussock Moth

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Troy Bartlett

I often encounter the easily recognized White-marked Tussock moth, Orgyia leucostigma. I found this one feeding on maple at the end of May in my front yard.

May 31, 2010 | Twelvestones, Roswell, GA, USA | ~30mm

I grabbed it for some closeup shots and to attempt to rear it.

Tussocks

Head

Defensive glands

It must have been a final instar, because it pupated just five days later. It spun the cocoon at the top of a container, but I carefully removed it to take some photos.

Cocoon | June 6, 2010 | ~40mm

A flightless female emerged ten days later.

It's a female! | June 16, 2010 | ~15mm

Portrait

Females cling to the cocoon until mated. That night, I carefully pinned the cocoon with her on it to a post on my deck. When I checked an hour later, mating was already in progress. The male that found her was rough looking, having lost many wing scales. read more

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