Io Moth Automeris io

Io Moth Automeris io; A large, heavy moth with an overall rounded shape, 2.5 to 3.5 inches across, the Io is distinctive in its yellowish hew with large red eye-spots.  Multiple eggs are laid singly on the bottom of leaves, hatching into lime-green caterpillars with a white or cream-yellow side stripe, and covered in branching, green spines which are mildly poison to the touch.  The only caterpillars seen were on Mexican Buckeye.

Io Moth caterpillar; note the lime-green stinging hairs growing from the top and sides of the caterpillar

Note: Caterpillars over two inches long, with white to yellow side-stripes and stinging hairs.

 

Great Purple Hairstreak Butterfly

Great Purple Hairstreak; Atlides halesus; a small butterfly less than 2″ across which makes up for its small size with color.  The upper surface of both wings of the male are an iridescent blue with a thick black margin, and a hair thin tail on the hind wing and a black spot framing a transparent ‘window’ on the fore-wing.  The black undersurface is marked by iridescent spots on the hind-wing and a blue slash on the fore-wing, the abdomen of the rather thick body a fuzzy carmine, with three red dots white speckles on the body.  Females are a less noticeable grey-brown, but apparently eye-catching enough to the males, which perch high in trees scoping the forests.  Females lay eggs on mistletoe, the caterpillars crawling into crevices or under chips of bark where they form their chrysalis.  More common in Central America, the southern USA is northern edge of their range, walls aside.

 

Goatweed Leafwing Butterfly

Goatweed Leafwing Butterfly; Anaea andria; a bright, solid brick-red orange butterfly that looks like a dried leaf when it closes its wings, which is the brown and grey of a dead leaf, the Leafwing sports a short spike of a tail, and a sharply pointed and curved wing tip.  The upper wing surface is solid red-orange except for one black speck on the fore-wing, and a narrow black trim around the wing perimeter.  Females lay their eggs on Prairie Tea (Aromatic Spurge) Croton monathogynus, also known as Goatweed, since only goats seem able to tolerate the poisons in the Euphorbia, or perhaps the caterpillars they might injest. The larva curl leaves and attach them to form a roll in which they hide when not out hunting goats.  Adult Leafwings eat rotting fruit and dung over their mercifully short lives before they breed to produce more poison consuming caterpillars.  The chrysalis looks like a green stink bug suspended from a croton twig, completing the Leafwing’s attempt to package beauty in as many disgusting presentations as possible.

Luna Moth

Luna Moth; Actias luna; a large (3-7″), lime-green, forest moth, with a single eye-spot on each fore-wing and hind-wing and long, soft tails that flies at night and rests by day.  The leading edge of the fore-wing is a contrastive dark brown, with a line leading to the front set of eye-spots.  Male moths have very large, feather like antennae with which to pick up the females’ pheromones, since she is not visible on dark nights.  Females lay large clutches of eggs on the leaves of deciduous trees, including walnut and persimmons.  A member of the silk-moth ilk, the large, green caterpillar lined with a row of black dots spins a cocoon of silk in which it metamorphs, emerging as moth with small, wrinkled wings which fill with fluid and harden in hours. The moth gets is name from the crescent shaped eye-spots on the front wing, known as lunae, not because it flies on moonlit nights (sorry to shatter the romance).

 

Luna Moth; a large, light green moth with eye-spots on each wing, a brown trim on the leading edge of the fore-wing, and long, soft tails on the trailing edge of the hind-wing.

Note; the long, slightly curled, soft tails.

Note; the round eye-spots on each hind-wing, and crescent shaped lunae on each fore-wing

Note; the male’s antennae are feather like.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Western Tiger Swallowtail; Papilio rutulus; an attractive, large (3-4″) yellow to light tan butterfly with angular, tapering black stripes that begin on the front wings, one angling back across the wing surface, and pronounced, pointed tails on the trailing edge of the hind-wings.  The trailing margin of the wings are outlined with a thick black trim, punctuated with yellow lines or crescents, the hind-wing noticeably scalloped.  Variable blue dots mark the end of the hind-wings, sometimes sporting a tiny red-orange fleck where the wings come together.  The thin body has a black line running its length.  Males of these butterflies can often be found sipping water from mineral seeps, the tonic does them well, I guess.  Females lay up to 100 eggs singly, which hatch into eyed caterpillars that frequently consume the leaves of cottonwood, poplar and aspen, trees never far from water.  Butterflies emerge from their chrysalis in spring.  Eastern Tiger Swallowtail are similar, but are brighter yellow, and sport a much broader band of blue along the entire trailing edge of the hind-wing.

Promethea Moth

Polyphemus Moth; Antheraea polyphemus; a large (6″ wingspan), furry, light brown silk moth with pinkish markings, and two eye-spots, the trailing edge of the wings bordered with dark line a pinkish tinge, and a broad tan trim.  Each fore-wing has a small, bright yellow eye-spot with an elongated, transparent ‘cat-eye’ pupil, while each hind-wing has one large, elongated, black eye-spot with a yellow eye and a slanted, transparent pupil that appears black.  The hind-wing is hidden under the fore-wing until the moth is disturbed.  As it raises its wings the large eye opens, like an owl’s eyes.  The female emits strong pheromones, which the male can detect with its large, feather like antennae, even on the darkest night.  Common in forested areas and forests of urban trees, the moths are attracted to light, often found clinging to houses below night-lights.  Females, whose antennae are thinner, lay loose clusters of round, yellow-white eggs that hatch into caterpillars that grow into large, soft bodied larva that feed indiscriminately on a wide variety of vegetation.  The final molt of caterpillars crawls into the leaf litter where they metamorph inside a cocoon of silk threads.

Pearl Crescent Butterfly

Pearl Crescent Butterfly; Phyciodes tharos; a thin bodied butterfly with intricate, black patterning on bright yellow orange wings trimmed with a wide black margin, the trailing edge of the hind-wing looks scalloped.  Nearly identical to the Silvery Checkerspot Butterfly (Chlosyne nycteis) except that the Pearl Crescent has a small, crescent shaped spot of yellow on the trailing edge of the fore-wing, and a white crescent on the undersurface of the hind-wing.  The undersurface of the wings is otherwise, a mild, variegated grey and tan.  Pearl Crescent has a unique flying habit, gliding low over the ground with the wings stiffly open, and holding the wings open rather than folding them as soon as it lands, thus making itself visible to other Crescent butterflies.  Territorial males maintain an area, patrolling for females.  A common butterfly, Crescents have been seen in everywhere but the West Coast, feeding off of a wide range of flowers.  Females lay clutches of eggs on aster plants, the small, gregarious, bristly, black caterpillars feeding on the leaves of a wide range of asters.  If they do not reach the chrysalis stage by fall, the caterpillars hibernate over the winter.

Note; the small, orange crescent in the black margin of each fore-wing

Sphinx Moth

Sphinx Moth; Eumorphia pandora/achemon (Hawk Moth); The picture below is of one of the two highly variable Sphinx Moths, or Hawk Moths commonly seen in the area, both of which have a patchwork of greys and browns on the fore-wing, and a trailing edge of pink on the hind-wing.  Pandora’s tends to have darker patches on the wings, while Achemon’s tends to have more pink on the hind wing.  The heavy body and sculpted wings means this moth needs to fly fast and move its wings very fast in order to stay aloft, and hover in front of flowers as it sips nectar.  Moths of forested regions, Pandora’s Moth lays eggs singly on grape and Virginia creeper vines, where the large caterpillars, usually striped and bearing one thick tail barb, munch along, filling their tubular bodies with green gunk.  the caterpillars drop to the ground and burrow under the leaf-litter, pupating in hard, mummy like cocoons  until they mature and hatch.  They then climb to an open roost where they flap their wings to pump fluid into them, stretching them out, where they dry and stiffen.  Adults need a lot of energy, in the form of nectar, which they gather as they fly around at night, the thick, brush like antennae helping them find flowers, and each other.  Such a large body is, naturally, a tempting, full meal for an insectivore bat, so Sphinx moths carry sharp, spike like, defensive pikes on their legs.

Sphinx Moth; a large bodied, furry moth with a patchwork of greys and browns on wing surfaces, and a pinkish trailing edge on the hind wings.

Note; the pike like defensive spikes on it legs for protection against insectivores.

Skipper Butterfly

Sachem Skipper Butterfly; Atalopedes campestris; Sachem, or better known as Skipper, butterflies are thick bodied butterflies with rather small wings (1.25-1.5″), which seem to flit, or “skip” between flowers in an almost bee-like manner in open areas.  Skippers are so hairy, and their even, brown coloring, marked by dull orange, so drab they are sometimes considered moths.  Like other moths, they also have short, stiff, spike-like hairs on the legs, useful for deterring predatory birds.  More notable are the transparent “windows” in the fore-wings, more or less rectangular patches (2-8, depending on species), which have no color scales.  Sachem was named for  Algonquin hereditary, consensus leaders, noted for their wisdom and composure, not charisma and war-prowess.  Native to South-Eastern, Southern USA and northern Mexico, Skippers lay single eggs on dry grass, where the caterpillars feed on a range of grasses often chosen for lawns, such as St. Augustine, or Bermuda, often making a safe-house for themselves by rolling dry grass and leaves into a protective tube.

Sachem Butterfly; a thick bodied butterfly with rather short, dull grey-brown wings less than 2″ across, common in open areas.

Note; small, transparent to silver “windows” in otherwise drab wings.

Note; adult Sachem feed off the nectar of a wide range of flowers, the larva feeding on low-growing grasses.

Grey Hairstreak Butterfly

Grey Hairstreak, Strymon melinus; this small (approximately 1″ wingspan), blue-grey butterfly is one of the most widely distributed butterflies in the Americas, ranging from Canada to Venezuela.  The inner surface of the wings are a fuzzy, slate blue with minimal iridescence, marked by one large, bright red to orange eye-spot on the hind wing punctuated with a black ‘pupil’, and a single, hair-thin tail on each side.  The underside is an even, light grey, with a single orange eye-spot with a black ‘pupil’on  the hind-wing, and two rows of tiny white lines, bordered with orange angling across the wing surfaces.  A butterfly of open spaces, it avoids forests, except to use trees as a resting spot, where males wait for passing females.  Hairstreaks lay eggs singly on a wide range of fruit trees, for the caterpillars can be cannibalistic.  The caterpillars causing economic loss to the fruit industry, though they do not feed exclusively on fruit trees, but they also attract ants, which protect and care for them, the likes of which also care for colonies of aphids.  Adults feed off the nectar of a wide range of wild flowers.  Cyclically migrating, Grey Hairstreaks molt, lay eggs and pupate several as many as 6 times in a summer as they slowly fly north, then turn south in July and return, taking advantage of the changes in flower availability.

Grey Hairstreak; a small, blue-grey butterfly with a single orange eye-spot on the hind-wing, complete with black pupil, with a single, hair-thin tail on each side.

Note; for size comparison, here feeding on Antelope Horns Milkweed flowers.