Black and White Moth

scitch · Post by **scitch** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:06 pm

This is one of the subjects that my daughter will use for her science fair project, so it's important that we get a good enough ID to determine the type of ecosystem that it lives in.

The subject is around 3 cm across, black and white with orange spots on the side of its head. This is a stack of about 10 images taken with the OEM Sony Alpha lens reversed. Lighting consisted of an external flash through tissue paper diffuser (from the right side of the image), on-camera flash with tissue diffuser (straight down on subject), and tabletop illuminator flashed on-and-off quickly through a tissue paper diffuser (from the left of the image giving the left side a slightly yellow appearance.

First is an image of most of the body. This is followed by a crop of that image of the head and shoulders.

The feathery antennae means that it's a moth, correct?

Mike

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:42 pm

Yes, it's a moth.

Can you show us a whole wing, please?

Where, when, and how was the specimen collected?

--Rik

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 7:39 pm

I believe it's a Tiger Moth:
Gnophaela vermiculata or something very close

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 8:23 pm

Good catch. I was thinking perhaps one of the Foresters, but I couldn't get the details to match up. Gnophaela vermiculata looks perfect.

--Rik

scitch · Post by **scitch** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:09 pm

Thanks. It was caught with a butterfly net in a baseball park in Menifee in Southern California. I'll look into the tiger moth and will try to post a picture of the wings soon.

Mike

scitch · Post by **scitch** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 12:34 am

Rik, I hadn't seen your ID yet. That looks about right, but I'm not within the range on that map. There was some debate about where we got it. It's possible that it was on our way to Yellowstone. It does look very similar.

Here's a better picture and a few other low-quality pictures that I hope are good enough for an ID.

#1 is the black and white moth from before (the left wing is folded over at the end)
#2 is a grasshopper that looked like a butterfly while flying and was more yellow before it dried out (I'll post pictures of its face separately)
#3 is a butterfly (skipper? I still can't tell the difference) with some mold from when I was trying to loosen its appendages
#4 is a moth with a strange structure on the back of its neck

Where do you go to find IDs on this type of specimen? I've seen sites for diptera, but not moths and butterflies.

Mike