June 12th, 2006
moth surprise
Yesterday, we spent about four hours slowly wandering along the roadways and trails at Murphy’s Point Provincial Park. At one stand of plants along a woodland trail, I spent a couple of minutes photographing Scorpion Flies. I was finding plenty of females, but very few males, so I stood around waiting to see if any would appear. As I studied the plants hoping to find a male somewhere among the leaves, I suddenly noticed something very yellow just a few inches above the soil. At first, I thought I might be seeing a False Crocus Geometer moth as there have been so many of them flying here at the farm over the past few days. However, as I leaned closer for a better view, I found that the moth was far too large and had very furry legs, so realized that this was an Io Moth (Automeris io).
I shot several photos of the moth with its wings closed, and then gently nudged the edge of one wing with my fingertip. The moth obliged by opening its wings enough to display the eye markings on the hind wings (see below – click on image for larger view). Such a large and beautiful moth — and what a nice surprise to stumble upon it while searching for Scorpion Flies. The rest of our walk was unusual in many ways. I’ll have more to say about it over the next couple of days.
