Boring Borers? I think not...

One of the real treats in the mothing world, at this time of year anyway, is the chance to catch a few of the flashy borer moths in the genus Papaipema. There are quite a few to choose from and several are highly distinctive. However, many are confusingly similar and you find youself scratching yer head a bit whilst struggling with the odd tricky identifcation. You find yerself looking very closely at the size and amout of white on the reniform and orbicular spots, the exact shade of orange on the forewings and the extent of any darker shading between the spots. All very confusing. but well worth it because they really are fantastic-looking creatures.

The borer above is (I think!!) Papaipema baptisiae. The larvae bore into the stems of indigo, wild indigo, Indian-plantain and dogbane.


This one is (again slightly tentatively) Papaipema birdi. It shows a larger reniform spot with a slightly different arrangement of white spots around it compared with P. baptisiae. The larvae bore into a variety of umbellates.


Lastly, an easy one! This one is Papaipema inquaesita, nothing else is similar. Note the strongly angled lines. The larvae bore into the stems of sensitive fern.

Hopefully more of these brilliant moths to follow in the coming weeks...

All Quiet on the Southern Front...

Another short session on the Leslie Street Spit proved rather fruitless yesterday evening. A bit too clear with a big moon and a little cooler than hoped for - is that enough excuses? Still, this nice Darling Underwing supped the golden goop for a while, and looked pretty good whilst doing so. I have to say that this is one of my very favourite of the genus - I like the dark slaty forewing with the delicate greenish overtones. And ya just can't enough of those flashy carmine hindwings...


Being a big fan of pyralids I'm always happy to catch the above species - Dicymolomia julianalis. Quite striking in it's own understated way.

The migrants keep coming...

I was pleased to catch this Spotted Beet Webworm in my backyard trap last night. My trap here has been awful in spite of the warm nights and obvious migrant potential of late. This is a fairly regular migrant to southern Ontario - I'd already caught a couple this fall - but it was new for the garden. Quite a striking little critter is it not...

Walsingham blowout...

Rarely, if ever, have I caught so many neat moths in one blow-out session! So it was to be on Wednesday night around the home of Mary Gartshore and Peter Carson down in the steamy depths of South Walsingham. We had been keeping an eye on the weather and decided this would be the night - how right we were. We being Mike King, Bob Yukich and me.

We set up three bucket traps and a couple of MV bulbs in front of sheets, as well as gooping a few trees. The goop produced little other than a couple of White and Yellow-banded Underwings. The sheets also were a little disappointing and we called it a night earlier than I expected. All the goodies were in the traps the next morning...

The nicest-looking moth of the night appears above - a lovely Pink-washed Looper Moth. As I write I have no idea as to the status of this moth in Ontario. I can find no mention of it in the literature so it may be new - fingers crossed! We caught another noctuid that may be new but I'm awaiting an expert opinion on that one.


Less spectacular but very rare in the province was this Beet Armyworm Moth. I had caught several of this diminuative migrant Spodoptera in UK last autumn so I immediately recognised this one! I was quite excited by this stage to say the least. In Uk this moth is called the Small Mottled Willow.


Just after jarring the SMW above I noticed this moth hiding within one of the egg cartons, I jarred it quickly and came back to it later. It proved to be a rare migrant I'd wanted to see for many a long year - an Orbed Narrow-wing no less! In spite of not looking like most of the pictures I'd seen of this species the shape was totally distinctive. This mainly tropical species rarely makes it up to these parts so I was well pleased.


One of the reasons for making this trip was to catch some borer moths in the genus Papaipema. All are lovely in their own ways. We trapped four species on this occasion with P. cerina above being the most spectacular - not least because none of us had seen it before! We caught three individuals out of which this was the largest and brightest.


When MK said "Hmmm, there's a nice-looking pyralid" I was totally amazed to look down and see the striking Mimoschinia rufofascialis. I'd caught this once before in my back yard in Toronto many years ago, also in September. It was years before I was finally able identify it so I was grateful for a second chance to obtain better photos. Fantastic-looking creature. I'm not totally sure of it's status in the province but it is possible that my two records are all there is.


This is the distinctive-looking geometrid called the Juniper Geometer. We caught two of these. In September 2004 I caught one of these at the same site so it's nice to be able to confirm that it does actually live here! It is possible that this is the only site in Ontario, but this needs confirmation.


Finally, and yet another great surprise was this brilliant geometrid called Packard's Wave. Again we caught two crispy fresh individuals. Yet another new moth for me and totally unexpected - what a night! Out of interest, this moth closely resembles a migrant species in UK called Blair's Mocha - the resemblance is uncanny - check it out.

So, a fantastic night of mothing. There was more...and I'll post some more photos when I have time.

New Airplane for the Yard List...

Yet another quiet night on the moth front. I did catch the plume moth above - Platyptilia carduidactyla. I'd only seen this one once before (Brooklin in October a few years back) so this was a welcome addition to the old back yard list. James calles this bunch of tricky long-legged micros "airplane moths" due to way they hold their wings at rest. Not a bad description really...

It's been very quiet the past couple of nights due to cooler clear nights. One highlight though was the nice tortrix Epinotia lindana above - a garden tick no less! The jagged-edged pattern on the forewing is distinctive on this late-flying sprite. Maybe tomorrow there will be more to report...

Cutting Edge Mothing...

I was in deepest Durham county over the weekend taking part in the annual Toronto Ornithological Club "fall field day". It was a fun event starting and ending with several beers! Our team scored 121, which was a fine effort on the day. Anyway, it is always an excuse for me to run a moth trap in the back yard of my kindly hosts. The eventual contents of the trap were a bit dross-like this time around with little of great interest. However, I did catch two nice examples of the the moth featured above - Agrotis gladiaria, Swordsman Dart. This late-flying noctuid is fairly common but I never seem to catch too many. The larva are generalists on many plants.

Gooping on the Spit...

A few days ago I was invited to help out with a moth night here in Toronto on the Leslie Street Spit. The night was hosted by members of the Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station (TTPBRS), which is run by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Also present were some of the keener "moth people" from the Toronto Entomologists Association. I set up a blacklight and a mercury vapor bulb in front of sheets and slathered my favorite "goop" on several likely-looking trees in the vicinity. After a while Seabrooke Leckie from TTPBRS set up her blacklight too. I have to say that the whole event was a great success and we caught and identified 55 species in a couple of hours - which is not too bad for this time of the year.

The highlight, for me, was the rather drab moth featured above - Abagrotis orbis. This is a very local species in Ontario, where it favors lakeshore dune habitats. There are previous records from Presqu'ile Provincial Park, Normandale and Port Franks. I also know of two other records from Toronto - one of which was in my back yard a couple of years back. So, perhaps not too surprising that it should occur here.


Another nice find was Oligia obtusa - the Obtuse Brocade for want of a better name. I'd only seen this moth twice before so to attract three on this evening was great.


Puta Sallow. All the individuals we attracted on this occasion (about 3-4) were rather pale. The markings where all there (note the dark "W" across the wings) and the size was right but I was confused at first since all the others I'd caught in previous years were a little darker and more variegated than these.


The diminuative tortrix Phaneta raracana. I'd only seen this once before and badly needed better pix!


The pyralid Apomyelois bistriatella. My only new moth of the night - hey, I'll take it!!


Lastly, the lovely late-flying tortrix Eucosma dorsisignatana. I catch this just about every year at a variety of locations. Love the snouty aspect and all those fine vermiculations...

I would like to thank Dan Derbyshire, Seabrooke Leckie, Ian Sturdee, Carolyn King and Steve Laforest for all their help in making this event a great success. I do believe we may have a few moth converts here - here's to the next one...

Play Dead - Vol 2...

The strange and exceptionally hairy Larch Tolype above is in the devilish act of playing dead. It's only the females that do this. The smaller and darker males whizz off into hyperspace as soon as you even look at them. Both sexes are very difficult to photograph for different reasons - the males nearly always have to be "chilled-out" for a few minutes, and the females need to be "warmed-up" a trifle. The life of the Moth Man eh...


Still, when she IS warmed up and decides to sit in a more acceptable manner she looks pretty good, albeit a bit on the hairy side!

Back from the Portage...

We all trundled up to the family cottage on the shores of Portage Lake for the last couple of weeks of August. When not doing all the cottagy things that one does up there I found plenty of time to indulge in a bit of mothing. In the two weeks I notched up a nice list of mid-autumn specialties and a host of new micros.

Portage Lake is about 20 Km south of Parry Sound. We are lucky to be on the north edge of the lake which has excellent mixed woodland and shrubby-edged clearings all around. The moth list is ever-growing, especially since I'm slowly sorting through the micro bits. Below are a few of the nice moths to be found here at this time of year...


My highlight macro was this chunky noctuid called the White-tailed Diver. I've long wanted to see this moth and was totally surprised when it eventually did decide to reveal itself to me. The young larvae are leaf miners on aquatic plants such as cattails, water lilies and pickerelweed, after which they bore into the leaf stems. They then swin to shore and winter in lakeside leaf litter before pupating in the spring. Apparantly, second generation larvae (as was this individual) pupate in the larval tunnels. An amazing life history. This moth appears to be uncommon at best in Ontario so I have to thank the moth gods for this one...


The small but chunky Oligia minuscula. I've only ever seen this moth here, and not that often either. It seems to have a short flight period in mid August to early September. They usually have an obvious black bar in the median area of the forewing which this individual lacks.


A nice Dotted Sallow. This is generally the first of the orange sallows to emerge in the fall and, as you can see, is distinctly on the dotty side.


The lovely Scalloped Sallow in its usual "headstand" resting pose - don't ask me why! It is on the wing mostly in September. The larvae feed on a wide variety of trees and plants.


The complex-looking Sutyna privata. Again, I've only seen this moth here at Portage Lake and the surrounding area. Occasionally I've found it at rest in the daytime on Tamaracks in the middle of fens and bogs. Another September flier.


The oddly-named Old Man Dart. I like this one. It appears to be nothing special but a closer look reveals quite a nice subtle pattern on the forewing. The larva feed on a wide variety of trees and plants and the adult is on the wing in late August to early October.


The nice-looking Euxoa campestris. A typical "dart" this moth seems to be rather local, another Portage specialty as far as I'm concerned. I hadn't seen it for a while so I was happy to obtain a nice series of photos.


The sizeable Great Dart. Yet again, in Ontario I've only seen this moth here, but there again I do a lot of mothing here! I was very excited to catch some of these in UK last autumn where it is an irregular migrant in the southern half of the country. Over there it is called the Great Brocade, a name I prefer.


Finally, and though I did catch a great many neat micros, this was the pick of the bunch this time. Meet Archips alberta. This tortrix is quite large and beautifully patterned. I wasn't sure what it was at first but a quick glance through the MPG tortix pages steered me in the right direction. It seems to be rather local in Ontario.

So, a tiny fraction of the moths I caught during the two weeks. Well, gotta save a few pix for next time eh...