Moth Of The Week

Moth of the Week

Hornet Moth

Sesia apiformis

The hornet moth is a part of the family Sesiidae or the family of clearwing moths. They get their common name predictably from how they mimic the appearance of the hornet. This type of mimicry is called Batesian mimicry, which is when a harmless species mimics the appearance of a unpalatable or defended species to protect themselves from predators. It was first described in 1759 by Carl Alexander Clerck under the name Sphinx apiformis.

Description This moth uses what called Batesian mimicry to resemble the hornet so predators do not want to eat it for fear of being stung. The adult moths have clear wings with yellow and striped black bodies. The number of stripes varies, females have two stripes while males have three. They are about the size of a hornet with the same jerky flight pattern when disturbed. The only difference is the hornet moth has more yellow and lacks the waist between the abdomen and the thorax.

Wingspan Range: 34 - 50 mm (≈1.34 - 1.97 in)

Females are larger than males

Diet and Habitat The larvae eat several species of poplar trees such as apsen (Populus tremula), black poplar (Populus nigra), and goat willow (Salix caprea). They prefer trees surrounded by heavy vegetation as those kinds show more evidence of infestation from larvae burrowing into trees. Adults do not eat.

This moth ranges over mainland Europe, Great Britain, and parts of the Middle East. It had also been introduced to America and Canada. They prefer open habitats such as parks, hedgerows, golf courses, quarries, fens, pond edges, and pits.

Mating The female moths attract males using special posterior glands to emit pheromones, usually soon after emergence. The male doesn’t seem to have any courtship behaviors as the two sexes are likely to begin mating as soon as they come into contact. Both males and females mate multiple times with different partners before the female beings laying her eggs.

Females prefer to lay eggs on old or isolated trees surrounded by vegetation. Females can lay from hundreds to thousands of eggs and exhibits no parental care. When comparing the number of eggs laid to the number of adults emerging per year, it is clear the large number of eggs laid is to make up for the large mortality rate between the egg and adult stages.

Predators This species of moth is primarily preyed on by magpies and great tits. Interestingly, these birds do not eat hornets despite eating this moth. An explanation for this is since these birds don’t eat hornets, the mimicry is less effective as they have any bad experiences with insects of this coloration. In fact, it can be suggested that the black and yellow coloration has the opposite effect: once the birds realize this moth is harmless and can be easily seen, they begin to actively seek them out.

Fun Fact The hornet moth is seen as a pest in the eastern United Kingdom due to a large dieback of poplar trees from larvae burrowing into them. However this dieback is not inherently caused by the larvae but instead from drought and human influences, which the larvae increase the effect of.

(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation)

Moth of the Week

African Death’s-Head Hawkmoth

Acherontia atropos

The African death's-head hawkmoth is part of the family Sphingidae and is the most widely recognized of the three species of Death’s-Head Hawkmoth. The species was described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. Its common name comes from the skull shape on the back of its thorax. It’s binomial name comes from the river Acheron in Greece, which was believed to lead to the Underworld, and the Greek goddess Atropos respectively.

Description The forewings are black/brown with mottled shades of brown while the hindwings are buff orange with two black/brown stripes that curve with the edge of the hindwing. The head and thorax are the same black/brown color as the forewings interrupted by the brown skull on the back of the thorax. The abdomen is the same buff color as the hindwings with similar stripes of the same color. There is also a single stripe down the center of the abdomen called the “dorsal stripe.”

Average Wingspan: 13 cm (5 in)

Females are large than males with a rounded abdomen tip and larger, thicker antennae

Males have a pointed abdomen tip

Diet and Habitat Larva of this species mainly eat the leaves of potato plants which have alkaloids. The larva accumulate these toxins to become unpalatable to predators. Adults eat the nectar of flowers and stolen honey from the beehives of the Western Honey Bee. They are able to mimic the scent of bees and steal the honey undetected. They use their proboscis, a tube used to drink nectar and honey, to break the honey comb.

Their ranges stretches from the Middle East, as far south as the southern tip of Africa, as far north as southern Great Britain, as far east as India and western Saudi Arabia, and as far west as the Canary Islands and Azores. It is known to move into western Eurasia, but a majority do not survive the winter.

Mating This moth has multiple generations per year. In Africa, the broods are continuous. In the northern range, the larva overwinter in the pupal stage. Eggs are laid singly on the underside of species in mainly Solanaceae but also Physalis, Verbenaceae, Cannabaceae, Oleaceae, Pedaliaceae and others.

Predators This moth can emit a special squeak noise by sucking in air to vibrate a flap in its mouth and throat. The purpose of this squeak is unclear, but the two hypotheses are it is to scare away predators or to mimic the sound of a queen bee makes for the workers to stop moving to easier raid beehives for honey. They are also immune to bee venom and can mimic the scent of bees.

Fun Fact This moth has appeared many times in pop culture as symbols of death and evil:

It appeared in The Hireling Shepherd, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Un Chien Andalou, the promotional marquee posters for The Silence of the Lambs, in the music video to Massive Attack's single, "Butterfly Caught,” and on the American edition's cover of José Saramago's novel Death with Interruptions.

It is mentioned in Susan Hill's Gothic horror novel I'm the King of the Castle and John Keats’s "Ode to Melancholy.”

It is referred to in The Mothman Prophecies.

Finally, the moth is used as a calling card by the serial killer Buffalo Bill. However, in the movie script they are referred to under a different species of death’s-head hawkmoths.

(Source: Wikipedia, Simple English Wikipedia)

rosy maple moth pls

Hello! I have covered this moth before, you can find it here! :]

i have a question about tolype moths; they have a spot of curly, wiry hairs on their back. what is it? i tried to look it up and only found one person claiming females tore it off to protect eggs but they didnt sound confident. is it soft?

Hi! So sorry for the late reply.

The females do in fact use scales (hair) from their thoraxes to cover their eggs. However, I can’t find if they specifically use the dark hairs on their back. They may also use the white hair on their front or a mix of both, but I can’t find a source that specifies.

I also can’t find if the dark scales are soft, but I would avoid touching them as the caterpillars of the large tolype moth are covered poisonous spines. It is unclear if the adult moth has any toxins but it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Hope this helped! :]

Moth of the Week

Drinker

Euthrix potatoria

The drinker moth is of the family Lasiocampidae. It was described and named in 1758 by Carl Linneaus. Linneaus chose the species name potatoria as it means ‘drinker-like.’ Dutch entomologist Johannes Goedaert had previously called the moth dronckaerdt, meaning ‘drunkard,’ “because it is very much inclined to drinking” or because this moth repeatedly puts its head into water. The common name ‘drinker’ comes from the same reason.

Description This moth is distinguishable from other eggar moths by a diagonal line crossing the forewing and two white spots also on the forewing. Males are usually reddish or orangish-brown with yellow patches. Males in East Anglia are often yellowish. Females can be yellow, a pale buff, whitish, or a darker reddish-brown than the males. Male and females also differ in size and antennae shape: females are slight larger than males, and males have fluffier antennae.

Wingspan Range of Fully Grown Drinker: 45–65 mm (≈1.77 - 2.56 in)

Diet and Habitat The caterpillars of this species feed on grasses and reeds in genuses such as Alopecurus, Deschampsia, Dactylis, Elytrigia, Carex, Luzula, and other Gramineae. A few examples are Cat grass (Dactylis glomeratus), Common Reed (Phragmites australis), Reed Canary-grass (Phalaris arundinacea), and Wood Small-reed (Calamagrostis epigejos).

In the spring, they feed mainly at night and can be found resting on low vegetation during the day. The larva also supposedly drink morning dew because it had been observed to repeatedly put its head in water.

This moth can be found in Europe. It is common throughout England and Ireland but tends to favor western Scotland over eastern Scotland. It prefers habitats of marshy places such as fens, riversides, tall and damp grassland, marshes, damp open woodland, scrub, and ditches. However this species does sometimes live in drier habitats such as grassy terrain and urban gardens.

Mating Adults can been seen between July and August and presumably mate during this time. There is only one generation per year. Eggs are laid mainly on the stems of grasses or reeds in small clusters.

Predators Adult moths fly at night and are presumably preyed on by nocturnal predators such as bats.

Fun Fact Both sexes of the drinker moth are attracted to light, but males are especially susceptible.

(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation)

Moth of the Week

Macrocilix maia Moth

Macrocilix maia

The Macrocilix maia moth is a part of the family Drepanidae. It was first described in 1888 by John Henry Leech as a part of the genus Argyri. It has no recognized common name and is mainly called by its scientific name.

Description

The forewings and hindwings are a matching cream color and slightly translucent. The main attraction of the wings are two mirror images of a fly, one on each forewing. The body of the “fly” is black with red eyes/head and a white accent in the middle of its abdomen. They are outlined in amber and black with amber specks on the outer edge of the forewing called the outer margin. The hindwings have an amber splotch on the innermost edge, called the inner margin, that transitions to black and white as it reaches the corner. This is meant to look like a bird dropping that the flies are eating.

The body is a matching amber/dark brown as the bird dropping to blend in. The antennae are cream.

Wingspan Range: 3.7 - 4.5 cm (≈1.46 - 1.77 in)

Diet and Habitat This moth mainly, feeds on the Chinese Cork Oak as larva and do not feed as adults.

They are found around Asia in Borneo, China, India, Japan, Korea, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Taiwan. This moth prefers habitats like forests and jungles.

Mating The eggs are laid close to the host plant and adults are emerge in May. Mating season is presumably around this time.

Predators This moth is most recognizable by its use of mimicry. It’s wings resemble flies eating bird droppings to make it appear unappealing to predators. It also gives off a bad smell to further sell the act.

Fun Fact The type of camouflage this moths uses is called Batesian mimicry. Named after Henry Walter Bates, Batesian mimicry is when a palatable animal, or one without toxins or poison, evolves to look like an unpalatable/undesirable animal to protect itself from predators.

(Source: Wikipedia, Moth Identification)