hooded owlet ~ 09/18/14 ~ at home

hooded owlet moth

Cucullia sp. (Hodges 10180-10214)

I have to say, Andy is incredibly accommodating to my insect-rearing whims.  Twenty years ago, my ex threw a hissy fit after I mentioned I wanted to bring home a couple silk moth caterpillars from class.  I never did.  I should have known right then that it wasn't going to work out.  Ha!  Anyways, Andy got home before I did and even though he was pressed for time to get to an evening meeting, he discovered Charlotte went on her walkabout and he went searching for her around the living room.  Oh my goodness.  He's seen me make these containers enough times that once he found Charlotte tucked under a cotton rug, he knew what to do.  Admittedly, he used an old gym sock instead of nylon (I changed it out before this pic), but he got the gist.  He said she held still for about 3 minutes and then in 30 seconds she was completely under.  That was way quicker than George's 10-15 minutes.  Plus, Andy added a little blue tab to show me exactly where Charlotte had dug herself in.  Good man.  In a few days, I may gently dig up George (on the left) just to document his turd shape with photos, and then return him to the soil.  I'll be setting these containers with papae outside for the winter so they'll develop naturally without the artificial influence of indoor warmth.  I just have to make sure to check on them come spring.  Sometimes I forget I even have them.  Oops.

ps 01/18/16 - Last year I dug up George and inadvertently tossed him over the balcony believing he was a compost chunk.  It wasn't until Charlotte emerged as an adult that I realized what I had done.  George and Charlotte were not smooth, turd-shaped pupae, as I had assumed they'd be.  Charlotte was a fuzzy, pill-shaped object.  As for George, I hope he ended up well.  I have pictures of the adult Charlotte and cannot determine the exact Cucullia sp.

hooded owlet ~ 09/16/14 ~ at home

hooded owlet moth caterpillar
Cucullia sp. (Hodges 10180-10214)

That's George above.  I introduced him in a post from 2 days ago.  I mentioned he was mobile. Very mobile.  I provided him and his cohort Charlotte rather tall flax-leaved horseweed (Erigeron bonariensis) stalks (the same kind I brought them home on), because I was hoping to avoid the daily chore of obtaining smaller, quick-to-wilt clippings from down the street.  This is all to say, I did not have them in a container.  I simply stuck the trimmed stalks in a heavy-bottomed vase with water and a cotton topper to prevent accidental drowning.  Yep, the larvae were loose and fancy free at home, in my home.

And, George made a run for it today.  Twice.  Argh!  At first, I thought he was just searching for fresher food.  He somehow managed to get off the table and onto the floor, but that was about as far as he got.  The second time he disappeared, with a plethora of just-the-right-sized leaves to munch on, it dawned on me he must be looking for a cozy place to pupate.  It took me an hour of carefully searching every nook and cranny (man, I have some serious dust bunnies behind the furniture) until I finally found him nestled in a silty groove of our sliding glass door rail.  Phew!  I worried that if he had found a way to get into my houseplant containers, he'd be lost for good.  Plus, I had vivid images of settling in on the couch to discover something smooshy stuck to my bottom.  Yuck.  Good thing I found George.

If I hadn't dug up the large yellow underwing pupa in my compost a few years back, I don't think I would have known to simply provide a little loose dirt.  I quickly cleaned out a couple containers (another for Charlotte) and dumped in a couple inches of slightly moist compost.  I inserted a crawling stick for later and then set George down on top of the dirt.  After a few minutes of playing dead from the traumatic handling, he started wiggling himself in short spurts and then pauses, head first into the soil.  Shown above was about halfway through.  Within 10-15 minutes, he had dug himself completely under.  I was kinda surprised at how quick he was, because I had never witnessed how this happens before.

While the colors are a bit washed out in my photo, George had already started changing colors, loosing the bright yellow center dorsal stripe and gaining a reddish-brown tailend that looks a lot like a sclerotized head.  Doesn't he look a bit like a millipede here?  Very cool.

hooded owlet ~ 09/14/14 ~ at home

hooded owlet moth caterpillar prolegs (+ aphids)
Cucullia sp.

Yesterday, we walked down Oceanview above the Rec Trail with hopes to spot and cheer on my cousin Bob while he ran the last leg of the PG Triathlon.  We found Bob in the race... and a couple brightly-colored caterpillars on the same tall stalk of roadside weed.

Cats were fresh on my mind, because I had just received an e-mail from Gordon Pratt explaining his techniques for raising tiny blue butterflies and essentially encouraging me to do the same.  Eh, I make for a rather lazy lepidopterist and generally only raise whatever I can easily find (read: large enough to spot from 5 ft. away!) and if I'm in the mood.  It's been a while since I've reared anything, the last ones being Genista broom moths as a pest management favor for J.  I've had moderate luck with larger leps in our relatively cool coastal climate (e.g., Lophocampa success and unidentified woollybear failure), but I haven't reared anything as small as blues (except for the accidental poop-shooting orange tortrix relative).  So, while I figure out the logistics for raising tiny cats (and whether I have the patience for such endeavors), I'm dusting off my rearing containers for a bit of practice with yet another larger caterpillar.

À la Gary Larson, here are the newest additions to our family (note: he/she designations are purely random)...

Charlotte

Those are her gorgeous black prolegs in the first picture above.  She was voracious and slightly smaller than her companion.

George

Slightly larger, less hungry, and definitely more mobile.  Go, George, go!  I quickly stuffed a cotton ball into the vase, so roaming George wouldn't drown.

I didn't measure either one (remember, lazy), but they were maybe 2 inches long.  They seemed to prefer medium-sized leaves off stems that could support their hefty stature.  Within a day, the single stalk I found them on was stripped bare, except for side supporting stems and wispy flower-bud tips, whereupon I ran down the street and collected 2 more stalks for food.  Oy!  I inadvertently brought home lots of other insects from the clippings (aphids, ants, an inchworm, and a syrphid fly larva).

Until I see their adult form, I can't really say which Cucullia sp. these are.  My ID search started with googling images of "zebra striped caterpillar".  No kidding.  Yep, super-scientific.  Not!  But, it works.  That took me to the zebra caterpillar (Melanchra picta), which gave me Hodges number 10293 and a decent starting point.  Btw, Moth Photographer's Group has a excellent series of caterpillar plates for North America.

Cucullia speyeri (Hodges 10190) looks like a superficial match, but Robert W. Poole indicates C. speyeri is not found anywhere near here.  I think he's the same fellow who wrote a Noctuid catalog, so he would know (but I'm not positive).  There are certainly enough look-alikes, here (various), here (thin yellow stripe on side w/ white prolegs and white bindi), here (Hodges 10191), and here (wide yellow stripe on side w/ facial freckles and white bindi, not laetifica), so it's hard to say if this one from San Diego on CalPhotos is correct.  The Cucullia adults are not much easier to tell apart.

 flax-leaved horseweed / asthmaweed

Erigeron bonariensis (aka Conyza bonariensis)

Asteraceae

It's because of the reported native host plant for C. speyeri, horseweed (Erigeron canadensis, aka Conyza canadensis), that I was able to track down the ID of this non-native < 4 ft. tall relative.  I checked the few flowers in bloom, and they definitely look like bonariensis, not canadensis, to me.  I'll try to take pictures of this plant in situ, as the one I have here was otherwise stripped of its leaves and didn't look like it normally would.  More to come...

CA clearwing ~ 08/05/14 ~ Pinnacles

California clearwing / bee hawk moth nectaring on vinegar weed

Hemaris thetis (7855.1) nectaring on Trichostema lanceolatum
Lamiaceae

posted 08/15/14 - I've tried numerous times from late July to mid-August to get a clear picture of this fun bee mimic that hovers like a hummingbird.  Unfortunately, the CA clearwing moth usually finishes feeding at a flower the split second before my auto-focus sets, to then move around to the privacy of a bloom opposite the stalk to me.  It then becomes a game of ring around the odoriferous vinegar weed.  Sigh.  I end up smelling vinegar weed for the rest of my hike, too often from a carelessly dangled camera strap.  Ah, good times.  Smelly.  But, good.

For those not hip to the taxonomic tricks (like me), western Hemaris thetis was split off from eastern Hemaris diffinis (7855) in 2009.

duskywing moth ~ 04/17/14 ~ Chews Ridge

duskywing moth

Euclidia ardita

Considering we were keeping our eyes out for medium-small dark duskywings, it's no surprise I spotted this subtly decorated day-flying moth.  It has no official common name, but I've heard Jerry Powell calls it the duskywing moth.  Then, I thought about what I'd name it.  I see a face in the wings.  In some pictures, it looks like a winged mouse or an elephant.  It's like that game of seeing shapes in clouds.  Is that a type of pareidolia?  I'm drawing a blank as to a fun common name.  Duskywing moth works just fine for me.

white-lined sphinx ~ 04/15/14 ~ Pinnacles

white-lined sphinx nectaring on giraffe's head

Hyles lineata nectaring on Lamium amplexicaule 

Lamiaceae

Well, I won't win any photography awards for these photos, but it's good enough to show how impressively long its proboscis is and for an ID.  I've been casually calling these hummingbird moths.  Problem is no one knows what I'm talking about.  In my defense, I spotted what I believe was a Hyles lineata during a break in the rain at SFB Morse Botanical Reserve on February 28, which happened to be around the time when I also started seeing rufous hummingbirds on migration.  On an overcast day, the overall coloring for both the hefty moth and the tan bird are remarkably similar, and the name stuck in my head.  I have Paul to thank for correcting me when we saw another white-lined sphinx along the butterfly highway. 

Thanks to the blurring of memory through time, I had forgotten all about the clearwings (hey, if you don't use it, you lose it).  Back when I lived in OH, I was familiar with the hummingbird clearwing (Hemaris thysbe), which can have the more traditional green and red coloring of hummingbirds.  They were popular subjects of insect question calls to the museum and were frequently described as hovering like a hummingbird with a lobster tail.  Pinnacles has a different clearwing, the bumble bee moth (Hemaris thetis), formerly classified under the eastern snowberry clearwing sphinx (Hemaris diffinis).  I plan on keeping my eye out for them, because day-flying sphinx moths are fun to watch.

Greya moth ~ 04/15/14 ~ Pinnacles

Greya moth on woodland star

Greya sp. on Lithophragma affine

Saxifragaceae

Paul showed me this tiny moth nectaring on a woodland star.  In the sunlight, it has a lovely pearly sheen.  He said they can also be found with their butts stuck in there.  Some Greya spp. are known to lay eggs in the calyx, which also serves as an effective means of pollination for the flower.  Reportedly, the larvae feed on the developing seed, although later instars and other Greya spp. can also mine leaves. The Thompson Lab at UC Santa Cruz has been looking into the coevolutionary relationship between Greya moths and their host plants across western North America, including at Pinnacles.  The two reported spp. for Pinnacles are G. obscura (more info) and G. politella (more info).  Paul and I have been going back and forth over the ID of this particular individual.  My vote is G. obscura, but if questioned enough, I'll double-check ad nauseam.  I've asked opinions from others, and everyone has their own preferred way at arriving at an ID possibility:  wing pattern and size, behavior on specific host or nectar sources, dissection of genitalia, DNA analysis.

red-winged wave ~ 04/15/14 ~ Pinnacles

red-winged wave

Dasyfidonia avuncularia

Paul had just finished telling me about another day-flying moth that looks like an x-large Annaphila, when one kindly obliged and landed in front of us.  It was roughly the size between crescents and coppers, which also look superficially similar.  The Annaphila I've seen recently are at least half the size of this.

Annaphila decia ~ 03/19/14 ~ Pinnacles

 

Annaphila decia

More dead animals.  Hey, don't laugh at my photos, okay?  I should have asked for better lighting; the busy office was incredibly dark.  Getting decent pics is a crapshoot for me, as is evidenced by my crappy photos label.  I have zero interest in photography itself.  However, looking at my photo set compared to the standard is making me feel a bit embarrassed that I didn't take the time to line them up perfectly, properly sized, lighted, etc.  Eh, as it was, it took me a good 2-hour visit to take photos of a few trays' worth of Paul Johnson's Annaphila specimens, some from the Pinnacles National Park collection and some from his personal collection.  Thank you for your time and attention, Paul!

While I prefer alive and natural, over dead and spread, collections do have their uses.  My photos of a live Annaphila from March 9, 2014 match Paul's 4 A. decia specimens, especially compared to the series (scroll down for Annaphila spp.).  There's a distinctive, cartoony sideview of a boy's face on the hindwing, too.  The collection dates were 03/12/02, 03/18/07, and 2x 04/13/06 (yes, yes, I use mm/dd/yy).  That's good enough for me, even though I still don't think they're well represented online and barely match old hand-drawn plates (Hampson Species Index, figs. 7 & 8).  I did find it interesting that a couple more photos were uploaded to BugGuide in the days since my live post.  It's natural, since they're on the wing now.  And, I also located this gorgeous live shot, despite its misspelling (a challenge of online searching).

Alright, I'll admit I was jumping the gun the other day, fantasizing about how I may have accidentally found a previously undescribed species.  It's funny; I'm not ashamed.  Regardless, it reminded me of an item on my bucket list.  I'm not ready to go down that path now, anyways. Someday, right?  

Annaphila decia head on view

I should mention, it's really difficult to spread tiny moths this well.  Spreading takes good dexterity, talent, patience, and desire.  I have none of those qualities.  It's cool how those upright scales (that looked like jumping spider eyes) are still preserved in the spread body.  Now, all I need to do is find me some jumping spiders...

ps 03/27/14 - I am still researching this and may end up personally comparing with U.C. Berkeley's Essig Museum of Entomology original paratypes, which are accurately identified.  There is a potential that my photos, Paul's specimens, BugGuide, and Flickr are all the same, just not A. decia. Crazy, huh?  Go museums!

Annaphila decia ~ 03/09/14 ~ Pinnacles

Annaphila day-flying moth nectaring on birch-leaf mountain mahogany
Annaphila decia nectaring on Cercocarpus betuloides

Rosaceae

I think I've fallen in love.  This Annaphila is small, maybe 2/3 the size of its larger A. depicta sibling.  In fact, that's how I was introduced to the genus 3 years ago by Chris Grinter.  Its lines are gorgeous.  Look how they line up exactly on both the top and bottom wings, in its natural pose.  Even from the underside, there's full-on orange.  Be still my heart.

Unfortunately, I'm uncertain of its ID.  I queried Paul Johnson from Pinnacles, and we agreed it isn't well represented online.  Come on, look at this horrid picture.  He thinks it's A. decia. Both Moth Photographers Group and Pacific Northwest Moths have spread photos that don't quite match in my eyes.  I used to be quite familiar with Hodges, and I believe it's possible this is a yet undescribed Annaphila species (Hodges 9850-9872), the same as Hartmut Wisch's photos on BugGuide.  I'm asking Jerry Powell and Paul Opler for their opinions, hence why I'm including extra photos in this post.  Then, for Jeffrey Caldwell, yes, I do have additional pictorial evidence of proboscis use on the Cercocarpus betuloides flowers.

Holy cow, btw!  This bush was literally buzzing, which is so strange, because nothing else around it had that kind of activity, not even neighboring mountain mahoganies.  The leaf chews were kind of cute.  Leafcutter bees?

Annaphila decia looking very much like a jumping spider

And finally, you read it here first on Nature ID.  Paul Johnson suggested I could get an Annaphila paper out of the uncanny resemblance to jumping spiders that I noticed in this photo, right down to their striped legs.  The black scales on its shoulders and scruff of the neck look a lot like eyes, don't they?  Of course, I'd need to look at Paul's PNP specimens, observe more, take a lot more photos including local jumping spiders.  Apparently, our crappy 10-year-old point-and-shoot isn't so crappy, since it gets images when Paul's fancier DSLRs scare away the subjects.  Mmm, maybe, I should take on this pet project?  That is, if I don't lose interest first; I am prone to infatuations, after all (don't get me started on salamanders).  At the very least, I should figure out a way to get gas and food supplemented for these kinds of efforts.  For astonishingly hilarious jumping spider videos from down under, check out Jürgen Otto's peacock spiders.  Ha!  LiveScience has an excellent interview with Jürgen of how he came to do this.

ps 03/16/14 - I'm worried I might be a little crazy to believe I may have found a "new to science" moth.  In my defense, I've seen it happen twice for plants at Fort Ord within the last 2 years.  For some wacky reason, land life has not been as well-documented for the greater Monterey area compared to just north by 2 hours.  I think everyone is focused on the ocean life here, instead.

Then the thought process continues to something on my bucket list.  I want to be the person to name and describe a new species.  Crazy, huh?  I already know I would name it after Chris Grinter @ The Skeptical Moth, because of all the help he's provided me with moth IDs since I started my blog 5 years ago.

I've heard back from everyone I've queried.  I feel like I've found my fold with their various personalities.  There was a suggestion that this was A. divinula, which has only a single online reference on the Moth Photographers Group.  Nope.  Yes, yes, I already have in mind to personally check out 5 collections that would most likely have comparable specimens.  And so, my journey continues...

ps 03/21/14 - I've made a firm ID above (until I find out otherwise) and provided an update with comparison to Pinnacles specimens.

Annaphila depicta ~ 02/25/14 ~ Pinnacles

Annaphila day-flying moth nectaring on California milkmaids
Annaphila depicta nectaring on Cardamine californica
Brassicaceae

This is the same sp. moth I photographed on March 4, 2011, but these new macro shots are much clearer.  Three years ago, I had alerted Paul Johnson, Wildlife Biologist for Pinnacles, that it was on the wing.  A couple days later he was able to net a specimen for the Park's collections.  It was a new sp. for him, and he has since confirmed its ID.  Now, he's asked my permission to store my top photo in their wildlife observation files for interpretive/educational use.  Cool.  Not bad for my 10-year-old point-and-shoot.  Paul says his DSLR makes too much noise (slap of a mirror?), which scares off this beautiful moth in a blur.  Fancy-schmancy doesn't always get the goods.  Hehe.

There's also a fabulous fly in the second photo, but I'm ID'd out.  Can you ID?

ps 03/13/14 - I noticed the first set of Hodges 9866 photos in the Moth Photographer's Group by John Davis are misidentified.  I think BugGuide got it right, and they're A. macfarlandi and should be moved to Hodges 9867.  I don't know what happened to MPG, but they don't seem to be curating their collection as well as they used to.  It happens.

Genista broom moth ~ 10/22/13 ~ J's place

Genista broom moth / Sophora worm on yellow bush lupine

Uresiphita reversalis on Lupinus arboreus
Fabaceae

During a visit the day before, J showed me her lupine bush and asked me about these caterpillars.  They totally grossed her out, because there were so many (~100?), all tangled in webbing.  The best I could do on the spot was offer generalizations with comparisons to other gregarious and silky caterpillars, like western tent caterpillars and fall webworms. Curiosity got the better of me, so I asked her if I could take lupine clippings and caterpillars to raise, which I like to do from time to time, to find out which kind of moth they turn into.  I didn't really need to collect any, because a simple internet image search "caterpillar eats lupine" got me an easy answer when compared to my photos. Eh, the adults don't excite me much; they're little brown jobs (LBJs) with snouts.  Both the common names, Genista broom and Sophora, come from other preferred legume host plants.  A couple bloggers I follow have also featured the Genista broom moth: Ohio Birds and Biodiversity (excellent comments about sightings) and Bug Eric.  It's interesting to note we're seeing local caterpillars in October, versus spring and summer elsewhere.  As for the specific bush lupine, this is my best guess based on J telling me hers has both yellow and blue blooms like those at Asilomar, a characteristic that I believe is distinctive in yellow bush lupine populations along the coast.  And, I believe this phenomena is different than just the normal flower color change from yellow to purple after being pollinated.  Being the nice friend that I am, I clipped off the remaining caterpillars and bagged them to save J from the ick factor.  Her bush lupine is now only 2/3 its former size.  It'll be fine.

ps 03/20/14 - I noticed several moths have emerged.  They're not much to look at, a medium-sized moth brown.  I put both containers in the freezer.  Am not sure what I'll do with them, but I'm done having them use up my best rearing containers over the winter.  I didn't take any pictures, because they're really ugly to look at after 5 months of tangled and chewed, dried lupine stalks, numerous flat and felty cocoons attached to the rounded parts of the containers, and lots of dried poop and eclosion stains (forgot the name for this, but when leps emerge they release a liquid waste that's often reddish in color).  J would be even more grossed out!  I would like to practice dissecting, but I'm always reluctant to haul out my dissecting scope, because it takes up desk space that I usually reserve for piles of paperwork.

moths ~ 09/28/13 ~ Rocky Creek

 

Here are all the moths from night 2 of white sheet lighting.  Again, I'll add the moth IDs at a later time.  I welcome anyone who wants to help me ID these coastal moths in the comments.

I'm surprised at how sentimental I became while sorting through these moth photos.  The feeling reminds me of "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  My only published papers were 6 checklists of moths with Sonja Teraguchi.  I googled to see if it's out there on the internet, since the pubication predates Y2K.  Hey, it's on eBay.  Cool.  I think?  It's also referenced in a paper by Roy Rings in The Great Lakes Entomologist.  Very cool.

moths ~ 09/27/13 ~ Rocky Creek

 

I'll add the moth IDs at a later time.  Thanks to Pete at Essig, I borrowed Moths of Western North America by Jerry Powell and Paul Opler.  It's a spendy tome at $100 a pop, so I wanted to take a good look before I purchased.  I haven't had the patience to sit down with the hefty book, yet.  If anyone would like to help get the ID ball rolling, please comment.

CA oak moth ~ 10/21/12 ~ Elkhorn Slough

California oak moth
Phryganidia californica

For all the evidence I've seen of oak moths recently, like the total defoliation of oak trees at Garzas Creek and the crunchy munching at Toro Park, this is the first I've found the classic prolific pupae and moths on the wing this autumn.  Getting pics of the cloud of moths is difficult since they look like fuzzy tan blobs.  Even these photographs do a poor job at illustrating how the pupae were on any and every available surface.  We had oak moths like this at home this past spring, but for some reason a 3rd generation never materialized.  Country Mouse of Town Mouse and Country Mouse has a nice post of oak moths up near Santa Cruz.  This local abundance of oak moths leads into my next post...

CA oak moth ~ 09/23/12 ~ Toro Park

California oak moth caterpillar / California oakworm on coast live oak or interior live oak
Phryganidia californica on Quercus agrifolia var. agrifolia or Quercus wislizeni
Fagaceae

Coming down through Wildcat Canyon, I found great swaths of dead-looking oaks, yellowish brown and upon closer inspection severely munched upon by oak moth caterpillars.  I don't think the folks who named the canyon had this kind of wild cat in mind.

Sounds of drops like gentle rain and tinkly crunchy chomping surrounded me.  The smell in this area was distinctive, too, but I can't easily describe it.  The trail and nearby ground were completely coated in greenish tan pellets.  Frass.  Caterpillar poop. And lots of it! The most I've ever seen... which really doesn't mean much considering I don't follow the fluctuating annual cycles of oak moth populations all that closely.  I believe there are people who use frass mass to estimate population densities, so my assertion isn't totally out of the blue.  This past spring, I did casually notice oak moths were on the wing in full force unusually early on with a second generation flying in June or July.  Unfortunately, I didn't take notes of the timing and my recollection isn't specific, only that it was significant enough that I commented to a couple of Monterey City forestry fellows at the local farmers' market how I predicted this was going to be a booming oak moth year.  They laughed me off and politely disagreed.

The few green leaves I found here had become veritable buffet lines for caterpillars. What surprised me was finding so many feeding on dead leaves. Their mandibles have got to be industrial strength to masticate crispy dried evergreen oak leaves.  There were plenty of dead caterpillars that simply looked dessicated, but there were also numerous dead caterpillars hanging by their first prolegs, a sure sign of a viral and/or bacterial infection.  Interestingly, I did not find a single chrysalis (yes, I use this term for moth pupa in addition to butterfly pupa, if it's not covered in hairs or silk and hangs by a stalk).  I wonder if this 3rd seasonal generation will successfully pupate and emerge in the next few weeks, or if this is an early sign of a natural population crash.

Even when everything else is dried up, live oaks usually remain green all year round.  I doubt the caterpillars were directly responsible for the dried oaks, because I suspect their heavy feeding did not actually kill the trees.  Our unusually mild winter with very little rain was gentle on last year's overwintering early instar caterpillars and also water stressed the oaks.  However, there were numerous other oaks in the park that were still green and with significant numbers of oak moth caterpillars.  There is a part of me that wonders if this area, easily accessible to group picnickers, had been hit by Sudden Oak Death or an Armillaria oak root rot fungi.  I will be curious to find out if these oaks have a fresh flush of green leaves after the rains hit.

I blogged about CA oak moths once before, which is an unexpectedly popular post.  I've linked to the UC IPM Online site for CA oakworms in the scientific name ID above, and I don't recall why I didn't include it in my previous oak moth post since it's chock full of great information. Also, while doing another oak moth search, I found this fellow blogger Garden Wise Guy's post to be quite entertaining.

ps 09/26/12 - Thanks to Cindy at Dipper Ranch who commented and always gets me thinking about things.  I have such a difficult time IDing trees, let alone the confusing complex of oaks. I've edited the post above to include the possibility that the oaks I saw were interior live oaks and the possibility the browned leaves were due to an oak root rot fungi.  I'll see what I can do about contacting the proper agencies to check into this, because SOD is closely monitored.

western tussock moth ~ 06/03/12 ~ Garrapata

western tussock moth caterpillar

Orgyia vetusta

Here's a change of pace from all the plants I've been posting lately. We found this strikingly beautiful caterpillar on a fence post near the barn on the inland side of the Hwy. Similarly to many CNPS members' complaints about not recognizing family and name changes in the new 2012 edition of the Jepson Manual (often considered the Bible for CA native plant folks), the taxonomy of insects has also changed considerably since I studied them almost 20 years ago (geez, I think I'm getting old).

The bunched tufts (hence the name tussock) on its back are often compared to the bristles of a toothbrush. These tufts are typical of many members of the Lymantriinae subfamily (formerly Lymantriidae family). I do not know if the hairs of the western tussock moth caterpillar are urticating, which is something to be careful about with any hairy caterpillar. Even if the hairs do not actually sting like a nettle plant, I've found I can get a rash after handling lots of hairy caterpillars.

Now, the name tussock moth is not limited to Lymantriinae. Most members of Arctiinae (formerly Arctiidae) are very hairy and some are also called tussock moths, such as some Euchaetes spp., Halysidota spp., Leucanopsis spp., and Lophocampa spp. (like this spotted tussock moth I found 06/09/10).

As last notes, the adult female is wingless and looks almost like a fat fuzzy caterpillar herself. She waits for a male to arrive before laying eggs on her used cocoon. Joyce Gross from University of California, Berkeley has done an excellent job posting pictures and information at various online sites for Orgyia vetusta, including the Moth Photographers Group.

silver-spotted tiger moth ~ 07/24/11 ~ at home

female silver-spotted tiger moth 
Lophocampa argentata

posted 08/11/11 - The verdict is in. I heard back from Paul Opler and Jerry Powell, authors of Moths of Western North America, and Chris Grinter of The Skeptical Moth, the CalAcademy entomologist who first suggested the caterpillars I found and raised were L. sobrina. They all agree this moth that pupated 05/01/11 and emerged 07/23/11 looks like L. argentata.

Here's what Chris had to say about it, "I had assumed it was sobrina based on location - Monterrey [sic] peninsula is the type locality of sobrina and where all of our specimens of are from. I have to dig into our rare book room with a librarian to find the original description, but I doubt it will help differentiate the two species being that it's form [sic] the late 19th century. But, if sobrina/argentata are separate then they are nearly identical moths and it might be the case that they can not be differentiated from external morphology alone (genitalia required). I am skeptical that both argentata and sobrina could both be in the same habitat on the same trees at the same time of year - just seems more likely that sobrina is not a true species! (or alternatively, argentata does NOT occur in coastal CA and all of the moths and caterpillars you have seen are sobrina)."

I believe he's going to dissect specimens from CalAcademy to clarify whether there are indeed two distinct species. Here's where collecting does have its uses. However, I released this female moth the day after these pictures were taken. I should have saved her for Chris to compare for his dissections. Sigh, I already felt badly for not releasing her the previous day when she emerged, because she beat herself up trying to escape overnight and there were scales everywhere. The curl at the end of her wings was from her resting at the bottom of the container when she hardened. All in all, she wouldn't have made the best specimen, although I don't know how intact pinned insects are after removing the genitalia.

Oh! The cocoon seen in the first picture is from another moth that began pupation 06/25/11. It still has not emerged. I'll have to go back and correct my caterpillar IDs. I'm adding a new label specifically for this moth; to see my rearing exploits, check out lophocampa.

CA oak moth ~ 06/30/11 ~ Fort Ord

California oak moth on coast live oak
Phryganidia californica on Quercus agrifolia var. agrifolia
Fagaceae

The populations of the CA oak moth are known to fluctuate dramatically over the years in an apparent cycle. I tend to forget about them until I start seeing swarms of moths around oak trees on warm June or September/October afternoons. It's really quite an amazing sight. In places of heavy outbreaks, people who normally don't pay attention to such things definitely notice massive numbers of caterpillars swinging on lines of silk from defoliated oak trees and climbing everywhere to pupate, from tree trunks to buildings and cars. I've read the population cycle runs anywhere from 5 to 10 years. It seems to me this would be a difficult thing to monitor, particularly the relative numbers, length of time, and locations. What I recall is that one year it could be heavy out in Carmel Valley and three years later it could be heavy up in Aptos. I've even seen one oak completely defoliated and the oak right next to it not even touched. I wish I had taken notes and photos of my observations through the years.

Many people seem to get alarmed when their precious oak tree in their yard gets defoliated. They call out pest management companies to spray and inject pesticides. I think this is a waste of time and money. I also believe this is harmful to the tree, the fauna that depends on the tree, and surrounding wildlife, including birds that collect the acorns and other moths that don't even eat oaks. Some reputable companies will clearly state oak moth infestations generally only last 2 years at most and they will treat in the second year. Huh? Well, if you wait to the third year without doing anything, the moths mysteriously disappear anyways. Plus, the live oak usually recovers with vigorous new growth, which is not an annual thing for this evergreen oak. It's cost-free pruning with an added benefit of natural fertilizer from the frass. I've seen this first-hand in the oak trees next to our driveway; I actually think they look healthier now than a few years ago before defoliation from the oak moths.

I believe these regular population crashes are density dependent. My theory is that when you intervene in the natural cycle and artificially suppress the peak population size, you prolong the higher than average population numbers. Again just my theory, the reason for this is that parasitoids (tachinids and ichneumonids), viruses, fungi, other diseases, and predators that normally keep the oak moth population in check aren't allowed to do their job as effectively. You end up with a bedraggled oak (think how your hair looks without a hair cut for a long time) and the potential to prolong the stress of repeated partial defoliation, which could in the long-run do more harm to your oak tree.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box. For decent links with better information, check out Elkhorn Slough.org, University of California Hastings Reserve, Pests of Landscape Trees and Shrubs, and Tree Solutions (yes, a pest management company with well-written information).

ps 10/09/11 - The oak moths have started swirling around our oak tree en masse. Interesting to note, the tree itself does not look defoliated like I've seen other trees around town.

silver-spotted tiger moth ~ 05/28/11 ~ at home

silver-spotted tiger moth caterpillar (or nameless arctiid moth) feeding on coast Douglas-fir
Lophocampa argentata (or L. sobrina) feeding on Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii
Pinaceae

posted 06/18/11 - I mainly want to show the color variation of these caterpillars that I'm attempting to raise - from bright white to tan side hairs. These three were munching away at young shoots of Douglas-fir. I collected a third caterpillar from the Highlands the day I took this picture on 05/28/11. Add in the two I found around home, I've had 5 total. They seem to prefer hanging out together; in fact, they'll follow each other along a plate's edge like a caterpillar conga line whenever I switch out food. Except for the Highlands Easter caterpillar, I don't know which individuals came from where.

One successfully pupated and has been tucked in its cocoon since 05/01/11, one died 05/21/11 from what appeared to be parasites, and another one died 06/10/11 from what looked to me like typical Btk poisoning - the body was deflated and limp, like a plant that hasn't been watered, with only the middle sets of prolegs keeping the body attached to the nylon top.

I moved the two remaining caterpillars to a clean container. They now occasionally feed on Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) even though I'm still providing a mix of clippings. They rest most of the time upside down from a new nylon top. Their poop has gotten inexplicably smaller. I'm starting to get concerned because they don't seem to be progressing in their development. I suspect they may need a snack of another plant in order to successfully pupate - this is totally wild speculation after reading about Queen butterflies needing to snack on non-host plants in order for their adult pheromones to be chemically complete. I'm starting to remember all too clearly why I once gave up rearing caterpillars. Click to read a past post about how and why I'm raising these caterpillars.

ps 06/25/11 - As I was changing out the tree clippings, one of the caterpillars had started making a cocoon with hairs from its body and silk. I hope I didn't disturb it too much.