Hibernating goodies...

Hi again! I'm running about a week late so it's all going to be a bit confusing! I'll be posting the highlights from the last few nights of mothing - which have been very good due to the unusually warm weather we've been enjoying. Where I live all the maples are in flower already - is amazing.

Anyway, about a week ago Seabrooke Leckie and I ventured out the Leslie Spit for a couple of hours of gooping and light trapping. Was a bit chilly but we attracted a few moths including the above Lithophane antennata Ashen Pinion. This is a moth that has a brief flight period late in the fall, hibernates, and then flies again during the first warm nights of spring.


The moth above was something of a surprise. We jarred it thinking it was another Lithophane species in the darkness. However, upon looking at it in the light of day the following morning I was amazed to see that it was clearly a moth in the genus Ufeus. There are two members of this genus in Ontario, neither of which is particularly common. I catch the more regular of the two, Ufeus satyricus, up at the cottage - it has a more northerly distribution. This one though looked different so I sent out the photos for an expert opinion and was delighted to find out that my suspicions were correct and that this was the other, decidedly less common species, Ufeus plicatus. It is mostly a western species that has a few outposts in the east - add Leslie Spit to the list of eastern localities now! I guess it just goes to show. The Spit, with minimal coverage thus far, has turned up some interesting mothy surprises - what will be next?