Moth Madness - March 6, 2022

Well, I just realized that I'm actually adding highlights from 2 days here. Yesterday, I was on a longer hike out on Wilderness Peak at Cougar Mountain. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard a Northern Pygmy-Owl tooting on the way down. 

It hadn't sunk in that I hadn't come across one of these little guys since I started this project. Nice!

Today, it was a shorter walk on the same side of Cougar - the Bear Ridge Trail. I'd had plans to go a bit farther than I did, but I got stopped by the sheer number of moths flitting around the early part of the trail. Indian Plum seemed to be the flowers they were after, and sections of the trail that had lots of Indian Plum were pretty thick with these little guys. 

I was not really prepared, just had the phone camera on me, and it's just not easy to get pictures of these tiny moths! Getting close enough before they fly is one challenge, and the other is hoping that the camera focuses properly. This first image came out good enough to get one identification: 

Mesoleuca gratulata - Western White-ribboned Carpet Moth

This is a member of the geometer moth family. Geometer (earth measurer) is a name that makes sense when you've seen their larvae, also known as inchworms! They bunch up their bodies, bringing their hind legs to their forelegs, then reach forward to straighten out again. 

This one... 

I'm still working on. I'm pretty sure it's another geometer moth. It was so similar in size, structure, and activity to the other one. I had several pictures of this one, and the one feature that is a sticking point for me based on those pictures is the almost plain orange in the hindwings. There's a little bit of speckling, but the hindwings really are almost completely orange. The forewings have much more patterning, obviously. In the best lit images, the lighter patches are looking tan, while the darker patches are a mix of black/dark brown/speckled with light spots. It's very rocky road ice cream. Those dark patches are really two bands, as can be seen here - one running along the trailing edge of the forewing, and another right through the middle parallel to the other. There's a little bit of smudginess close to the head as well on the forewing - visible here. 

One more image for perspective. 

Great little hike - I got nearly nowhere, but had fun watching moths and turning over logs.