This week in the woods, in anticipation of Fridays third-annual Moth Ball at the Northern Woodlands offices in Lyme, we’re looking at some lepidoptera (three moths and a butterfly for good measure). Like all giant silk moths, the enormous, luminously green luna moth famously does not eat in its adult form and depends entirely on what it consumed as a caterpillar; it strives only for reproduction. Males like the one pictured have larger, feathery antennae used to detect pheromones released by females, which have more modest antennae. The twist of this species’ forked, barn-swallow-like tail disrupts the bounceback echolocation of the big brown bat, one of its predators. (“Transformations: Which Caterpillar Becomes Which Butterfly?” from our Summer 2010 issue, one of Northern Woodlands’ most popular articles of all time, pairs the luna and other caterpillars with their adult forms.)
Another showy, colorful silk moth, the rosy maple moth also flies this month. Barbara Mackay calls this sherbet pink-and-yellow moth “a contender for the Cutest Moth Award” in this Outside Story article from 2018. This species feeds on its eponymous maple leaves as a caterpillar but only sometimes causes fatal damage to trees.
This bluish spring moth, photographed by Ann Little, approaches the tail end of its flight period at about this time. It lacks blue pigmentation, but the sooty brown of its upper forewings can give it a blue appearance in flight. Also known as a wild cherry looper and shown here on a blooming chokecherry, it flies during the day and often holds its wings upright, sometimes causing people to mistake it for a butterfly.
The common ringlet (an actual butterfly but drabber than the luna or rosy maple above) varies in pattern from site to site and has at least four subspecies, but the underside of the forewing usually has a small eyespot at the tip. The gray-green hindwing’s underside has a wavy white median line. Males bounce atop grasses in meadow, fields, and tundra in search of females.
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.