Saturday, June 2, 2012

Interesting moths

At my condo, they have lights in the porch area that remain on throughout the night, every night.  So I often find interesting moths hanging out during the day, when the lights go out.  Today I found these two pretty moths. It's a real pain to try to key them out on the various ID websites, but I took a shot.  I think the top one is called a Crocus geometer (Xanthotype sospeta).  Poor thing with that horrible name.  I got sick and tired of browsing through the tens of pages of moths so I ended googling yellow moth and someone had IDed before. 

The bottom one I think is called a Harnessed moth (Apantesis phalerata). I'm not 100% sure of that ID. That one didn't seem so happy as it sat stoically on the carpet. I moved it to the railing because I was sure someone would step on it.What I have learned from this, is that I really do need a macro lens on my dslr since these better shots came from my point and shoot.