Sunday, April 04, 2010

Need help with moth id verification: Infant Moth?

Fot the past few days my husband has been returning home from walks near wooded areas telling me of a small orange butterfly he is seeing often. He had decided it was probably a moth. I have considered sending along my camera with him for he seems to see this small orange flying species often,. This morning while sitting in our truck along some birches along a wooded highway, I saw a small orange butterfly fly by and land in a small sized birch!. I didn't stay in my truck long when I saw it land on a birch tree. Grabbing my camera and changing to a macro setting I searched the birch limbs and finally found a brownish moth there. the moth had white markings on its outer wings. Then I noticed a beautiful orange colouring that seemed to be underneath. I could not get a clear photo showing the orange feature of this moth well. I was so disappointed, but the two photos following do include a bit of orange in each.


Where to start searching for its id?I determined to search through every illustration in my" A Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America" by Charles V. Covell Jr. but what a difficult chore that would be. I vaguely recalled a posting to a Nb nature, a nature mailing list fairly recently and the mention of a moth called "The Infant" .. so I decided to google "The Infant" (moth). What really stood out for me was mention that this moth often resembled an orange butterfly when flying, and secondly and of importance to me, the fact "Bingo"! that it was found on birch trees. both facts I concluded were very significant factors to me in id'ing this moth. Next I looked at images of The Infant on line and some looked very similar to my first two photos posted here. I would be most happy if anyone could help in verifying this id which I have decided is an Infant moth. What a lovely find! As soon as I post this, my camera and I are going out to hang around some birch trees along an old woods road. Maybe I can find some more.of these beautiful little creatures there.

5 comments:

Appalachian Lady said...

It might be the Mother Underwing (Catocala parta)moth--it's supposed to be in Nova Scotia. The underwing is yellowish-orange. We don't have it in Virginia--its territory stops at Maryland.

me ann my camera said...

Appalachian Lady, Thsnk you for your suggestion. I looked st the colour plste for the Mother underwing in my moth book snd I immedistely saw there was quite a difference between the width of the ehite stripes on the forewings. The white strips on my mothe photo sre much wider thsn the one you hsd suggested. I hope I get to see my little moth sgsisn. It is a beautifuul little moth. Thdnks for your input.
Snn

Mary said...

Wonderful that your husband and you together found this new moth to study and identify. I don't know one moth from another, so I'm no help with the ID, but all that you wrote is interesting and I hope you find out for sure. I don't know if Bugguide.com does Canadian bugs or not, but you could try them.

me ann my camera said...

Thanks Mary for the url. I will try it out. This moth is probably an international one. Glad to see you back from your Arizona trip. Ann

Helen said...

I have no idea what kind of moth that is. Helen