I was driving a friend home from rehersal earlier this week and was jerked from my late-night ennui by the sight of something delightfully entomological up near her porch light. Of course, I had to get out for a closer look. Despite the violent extremes of the weather lately, there are evidently a few hardy moths wandering around. This is a Pacific green sphinx (Arctonotus lucidus), about as winterish a moth as we're likely to see here. There is a little more information on it here:
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3455
If you scroll about halfway down this page,
http://natureali.org/piutes.htm
you can see some examples of Clarkia, which are supposed to be the host plant for Arctonotus. The leaves must come out much earlier than the flowers--as my Dad pointed out, the most noticeable Clarkia around here ("Farewell-to-Spring") doesn't bloom until May or so.
2 comments:
This is a good picture. It looks alive. A simple question. Is this the moth you saw @ the night?
- by an origami architect -
Yes, this was the one I saw. I try to carry my camera with me all the time--just in case! The moth wasn't as big as the picture makes it look, though. I think it was about 4 cm at the largest, and maybe not as big as that, even!
Post a Comment