Ento-musings from the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Moth 3: National Moth Week

Blake Newton, UK Extension Entomology

Here's a moth that I've seen many times, but I've never known what it was. I finally got a nice picture of it a couple of nights ago on my porch:


It's very delicate and pretty, with translucent wings and blue spots. One of my favorites. So what's its name?

Since I went into great detail on the identification process for the last two moths, I'll give the abbreviated version for the rest of the week.

Google Image: "tan moth translucent wings." Nothing. Looks a little like a moth in family Geometridae, so Google Image: "Geometridae translucent blue spots." Nothing. Maybe it's a tiger moth, family Arctiidae... many tiger moths are white or beige, with spots. Google Image: "tiger moth translucent wings blue." Nothing. I'm still convinced that it looks like Geometridae, even though it doesn't have wavy lines in its wings. Those creamy translucent wings just look like geometer wings. Google Image: "Geometridae translucent wings." Hey, there's something, about 55 images in. A Flickr images  identified as "The Beggar, Eubaphe mendica." Is that my moth?

Bugguide: "beggar." http://bugguide.net/node/view/3876. So it is a geometrid, and it even says "this is not a typical geometer in appearance, at least." I'm pretty sure that's my moth! Very nice. I don't think I'll forget this pretty lady.

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