Tweeters, and Crazy Dave

I get tweeters in digest, so am a day late with this response.

I am into my first winter photographing moths and trying to learn about them. So far I have found two species that typically emerge in the late fall or winter.

We are seeing lots of Bruce Spanworm moths, Operophtera bruceata. They are sometimes called winter moths. See photo and information here:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/725501

Also a few Erannis vancouverensis, perhaps a half dozen or so. I saw two of these just yesterday. These are larger than the Bruce Spanworm.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/727114

Both of these moths are interesting in that only the male is capable of flight. The females are flightless, with vestigial or no wings. They hatch in the spring, pupate in the late spring, then spend the summer as a pupa, to emerge as adults in late fall or winter. What a strangely timed life cycle!

I'm waiting to see if other winter moths show up, but so far just these two.

Dan Logen
Stanwood WA
d.logen at frontier.com