November has kept night temperatures around 70-degrees Fahrenheit, so I’ve kept my moth sheet active. It’s stained, tattered and deteriorating, and one corner isn’t showcasing varieties of bird-dropping moths but real droppings. Still, it’s intact enough to hold moths, occasional dragonflies, sleeping butterflies and other interesting night-flyers until I renew it next spring.
At first glance moths all look the same until my headlamp highlights their nuances. I focus on the larger moths first, hoping for a new sphinx moth and wanting to document it before it jets off into the darkness. I thought I had a new sphinx the other morning. There were two large moths close together. One was an obscure sphinx, a frequent summer visitor. I was sure the moth next to it was a sphinx, too; its size and markings seemed sphinxlike.
Surprisingly, it was a carpenterworm moth. Another morning, I was again tricked with a different looking moth. It, too, identified via iNaturalist.org as a carpenterworm moth. Later in the week, another new moth visited. It was big and beautiful, but deadly -- to a soybean crop – a velvetbean caterpillar moth.
Pretty, but not our friends:
Carpenterworm moth – Wingspan about 3 inches. Considered a pest. Widely distributed in the United States and southern Canada. Young larvae bore directly into the inner bark of trees or enter it through openings and then bore directly into the wood, according to information at www.fs.usda.gov.
BugGuide.net notes, “the larvae bore in wood of living deciduous trees: locust, oak, chestnut, poplar, willow, maple, and ash.”
Below, from left, Obscure Sphinx above a male Carpenterworm moth, male Carpenterworm moth and female Carpenterworm moth. (Photos by Anita Westervelt)
Velvetbean caterpillar moth – Wingspan to 2 inches. Soybean is the primary host plant, but it will feed on other legumes; also peanut, kudzu, cotton. The colors of these moths are highly variable with heavily mottled wings, or unmarked with a weak stripe and prominent spots, according to BugGuide.net.
Below, variable examples of the Velvetbean Caterpillar moth. (Photos by Anita Westervelt)
I suspect many moths just pass through, because their listed larval foods don’t occur in the Rio Grande Valley. With some moths, I have the required plants or know they’re in the vicinity. I haven’t found a lot of information about whether moths migrate. Some do, mostly agricultural pests in the family Noctuidae, such as fall armyworm and the corn earworm – I’ve had plenty of those this fall. Those moths “migrate at night in huge swarms so dense that they are regularly monitored by radar,” according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife “Eye on Nature” article by Mike Quinn, an Austin based invertebrate biologist.
Many moths are seemingly benign; others are destructive. Here are notes and host plant information about some good moths that have visited recently.
Royal poinciana graphic moth host plant is retama, Parkinsonia aculeata. A BugGuide.net photo observation put a caterpillar on a branch of coma, Sideroxylon celastrinum. And, indeed, the royal poinciana tree, Delonix regia. The caterpillars are nocturnal feeders.
Heteranassa mima. Resembles the royal poinciana moth but its plants are mesquites, including screwbean mesquites, and sometimes catclaw, Acacias greggi.
Below, Royal poinciana graphic moth, left and Heteranassa mima moth. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)
Neophisma tropicalis moth is recognized by iNaturalist.org.; BugGuide.net uses Ophisma tropicalis and notes possibly soapberry family species for host plants. There may have been a taxonomic change at some point. Galveston, Texas, is the furthest north iNaturalist records this species. Four have been observed in the Rio Grande Valley: mine in San Benito, one observation each in Weslaco, McAllen and Falcon State Park. Food listed is Cupania americana, wild ackee, a Caribbean tree in the Soapberry family.; BugGuide.net also notes that host plant is unknown. An attractive moth, the species is extremely variable in color and pattern.
Helia agna moth has one observed west of Mathis, Texas, another on the south side of Corpus Christi, one in Kingsville, and Sarita and quite a few in the Rio Grande Valley. Its range is Southern Texas to Central America. It is the only species of the genus in America north of Mexico, according to BugGuide.net. Helia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Gentianaceae. Possibly locally, catchfly prairie gentian, Eustoma exaltatum, may be a host plant.
Below, Neophisma tropicalis moth and Helia agna moth. (Photos by Anita Westervelt)
Sphinx moths are excellent pollinators. Here are four interesting sphinx moths that visited this week and their host plants.
Obscure sphinx – Climbing milkweed, Funastrum hartwegii; also bearded swallow-wort, Cynanchum barbigerum
Spurious sphinx – West Indian milkberry, Chiococca alba
Mournful sphinx – Possum grape (marine vine, sorrelvine), Cissus trifoliata; also peppervine, Nekernias arborea
Pluto sphinx – We’re lucky to have this beautiful green and white sphinx. Its range is South Texas and south to Brazil and the West Indies. It flies year-round in Texas. It feeds on milkberry, Chiococca alba; Pentas lanceolata; and firebush, Hamelia patens, in our region. Although not native, I planted pentas and a firebush to entice this sphinx species to stay around.
Mocis genus moths seem to have found my yard. They’re pretty and have approximately two-inch wing spans. They feed on local plants and are apparently prolific. They produce multiple generations per year. Larvae feed on forage and pasture grasses and corn, rice, sorghum and sugarcane, and beans and turnips, according to BugGuide.net.
Four mocis moth species visited my moth sheet this fall and I may have solved the mystery of the disappearing turnip greens: the small mocis moth is probably the culprit.
Small mocis moth larvae feed on various grasses, including rice and corn, and have been recorded feeding on beans and turnips. Last year, just as the turnip plants were getting big enough to cook, they became so full of holes that they just disappeared. This year, my new little shoots were eaten before they topped one inch.
Texas mocis moth, the larvae feed on Digitaria – a genus of plants in the grass family native to tropical and warm temperate regions, according to Wikipedia.
Withered mocis moth larvae feed on various grasses.
Yellow mocis moth – no information as to host plants
Below, from left, Texas, Withered (possibly; awaiting confirmation) and Yellow mocis moths. (Photos by Anita Westervelt)
Just for fun, I photographed a signate looper moth hitchin' a ride on the back of a Twig Girdler, Oncideres cingulata, that didn’t seem to mind its passenger. It’s mostly, any port in the storm attitude on the moth sheet.
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