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woollybear69

Day Flying Moth.

woollybear69
9 years ago

This is a photo of a Day Flying Moth. This Moth was resting on the outside of my screened in patio, at 2:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon........ I do not know the name of this Moth........9b Fla.

Comments (6)

  • kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
    9 years ago

    You don't give any clue as to how big it is, so I did a Google search for "Florida moths". You could do the same thing and enjoy many of the lovely photos. Here are 3 possibilities. You'll have to compare what you saw in addition to the photo to decide what it is.

    It could be a Dusky Herpetogramma (Herpetogramma phaeopteralis). The wings are hard to ID because they are all folded up and you can't see the body or eyes.

    It doesn't look as much like the Smoky Tetanolita Moth
    (Tetanolita mynesalis)

    Maybe a Faint-spotted Angle (Digrammia ocellinata)

    Here is a link that might be useful: Butterglies and moths of North America

  • larry_gene
    9 years ago

    Excellent moth, woollybear. It is uncommon to the point of having no common name!

    It is the Meropleon cosmion, and is known from Florida and other nearby states.

    http://bugguide.net/node/view/346183/data

    http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=9425

    If you saw the moth on the screen at 2PM and it was not there earlier in the day, it did indeed fly during the day, but that would not be the habit of this noctuid moth. It was either resting (actually roosting) there from the previous night or was disturbed from the previous roost and flew to the screen.
    Your moth is quite old and worn, note the bald thorax.

    The term Day Moths refers to much showier moths that fly entirely during the day.
    ----------------------
    kaboehm: Herpetogramma phaeopteralis and Digrammia ocellinata are both geometrid moths, not related to the moth in the image. Tetanolita mynesalis is in the correct Noctoid superfamily but in the wrong family. Many small brown moths look alike, but woolybears has a distinctive pattern: a sharp straight dividing line with dark diffuse area on one side and a medium and small dark area on the other side, plus grayish spotted wings nearer the outer edge.

    Perhaps you meant to type "you can't see the body or the antennae", as eyes would not be an ID key for most moths.

  • woollybear69
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    This is another photo of the Moth that I saw. The Moth was a half of an inch long. I also saw some light and medium blue coloring, on the top of the forward wings, or on the top of the rear wings.....

  • kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
    9 years ago

    Sorry Larry, I am trying to get more information from Woollybear. He's able to post photos, but apparently not give any other information..

    Thank you for the id. I was going through images of moths in FL and most you could see the eyes; I was just going off wing color, pattern, etc. I am very new at this and am trying to make Woollybear's posts informative rather than a daily photo posting.

  • larry_gene
    9 years ago

    Woolly is improving; info is leaking out slowly. At least this topic is of a local, live moth.

    The B&M.org link you provided is not the best for identifying an unknown moth, if you aren't familiar with the general appearance of each moth family beforehand. A good ID source is the Moth Photographers Group. That site has live and pinned image plates of nearly all identified North American moths, presented in family and genus order, and all in a similar pose. Much easier to scan dozens of images per webpage by this method. B&M.org and bugguide sites tend to have random poses per image.

    Pattern trumps color as same-species moths with different diets can exhibit varying colors.

  • kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
    9 years ago

    Thanks Larry...I'm learning...
    K