Throwing a little light on a few moths

Moths can often be thought of as butterflies of the night. I am used to seeing them fluttering around lights in the darkness. However earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to capture a couple of moths that made some daylight appearances.

The first one, a white-lined sphinx moth, was a first sighting for me. In fact when I initially went to Butterflies and Moths of North America's checklist for Venango County on www.butterfliesandmoths.org, the white-lined sphinx wasn't listed. It was listed for Clarion County.

An ID confirmation on the Facebook page Butterflies and Moths of Pennsylvania, solidified my best guess.

At first I thought this cool creature would leave the yard before I got a good photo. My first photo attempt was just its behind hanging out of a day lily.

Luckily, it took a liking to some verbena in a hanging basket.
 According to butterfliesandmoths.org, the adult moths usually fly at dusk, during the night, and at dawn, but they will also fly during the day.
I think I have seen one visiting the garden on a camera that I set up. However  when viewed in night vision with no color, it was a little hard to confirm an identity.
The moth's range includes most of the United States.
Its caterpillar host plants include "A great diversity of plants including willow weed, four o'clock, apple, evening primrose, elm, grape, tomato, purslane, and Fuchsia," the website posted.
The adults sip nectar from a variety of plants as well including columbines, larkspurs, petunia, honeysuckle, moonvine, bouncing bet, lilac, clovers, thistles, and Jimson weed, according to the site. 

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Also in the family Sphingidae which includes sphinx moths and hawkmoths, is the hummingbird clearwing moth.
These visit my flowers yearly. This year I managed to get a shot of two hummingbird clearwings in one photo. I normally only have one feeding at a time. They were again drawn to the bee balm which turned out to be successful bait for luring both moths and butterflies.

Posts on various Facebook pages referred to the moths as flying shrimp and I too saw  the resemblance.

The region is also home to the snowberry clearwing moth.  
I have in the past observed one or two snowberry clearwing moths, but nothing this year so far. They have a slightly different appearance than the hummingbird moth. They sport a longer black eye band and usually have legs that are dark to black in color. The hummingbird moth's legs are usually light to white in color.
I think I have one photo of a snowberry and I couldn't locate it for this post.

However, I did find three imperial moths over the past few weeks.
These large yellow and pink creatures literally only live for a few hours as adults.
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"Adults emerge before sunrise and mate after midnight the next day," said the post on butterfliesandmoths.org. It seems their only purpose is to look pretty and find a mate.
They don't even feed as adults.

I guess that saves on courtship costs. They don't even have time for dinner let alone a movie.

According to the website, the moths have one brood in their northern range from June-August.

Its caterpillar host include conifers and deciduous trees and shrubs including pine, oak, box elder, maples, sweet gum and sassafras.

The ones I have seen have been in the vicinity of some sassafras trees and saplings.
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I readily observe these big fellows and gals at work in Sandycreek Township.

​They are drawn to the shop lights during the evening and night hours. Unfortunately, this is not a great habitat for them. 

A lot meet their demise in the oil, grease and dust.
Although some may have met their end in another way.

Just recently, I observed and epic aerial battle between an imperial moth and a female red-winged blackbird.
I'm pretty sure the moth got away, but in the vast darkness of the shop ceiling it was hard to say.
The blackbirds also have learned that many moths don't make it out of the shop alive. The birds arrive in the morning to clean up the victims or to dispatch some of the weary stragglers still swarming the lights.

A much better environment for both moths and butterflies is the garden.
The cone-flowers keep bringing 'em in. They lure butterflies ranging from swallowtails to fritillaries. Sometimes there are even two at a time.

It has been so awesome to have colorful blossoms popping up in the garden. I am thrilled to host the "flying flowers" that come in all different hues. I absolutely love it when the two come together.

I went out to photograph my first sunflower of the season. I was so excited to have a fritillary butterfly on the sunflower posing for me. I was shocked. This rarely happens. Usually I grab the camera wait, and wait, and wait, and finally give up. Then as soon as I am without the camera, I spot them posing perfectly on a posy. That's just the nature of things 'round here.