@Niall Yes, exactly. It’s crazy. Most NZ moths are almost cookie cutter consistent with their colours and markings yet a few are wildly variable. Two other notably variable common moths are the dark banded carpet moth, *Hydriomena deltoidata*, with all sorts and different patterns in dark and tan brown, and the New Zealand Looper *Epyaxa rosearia*, which is sometimes green and sometimes banded brown with different patterns.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations?place_id=6803&taxon_id=390771

https://inaturalist.nz/observations?place_id=6803&taxon_id=320914

#mothodon #moths

Here's my favourite moth find of the past week, which we saw at Hinewai Reserve over the hill from Akaroa, NZ. It's *Declana floccosa* which is quite variable in it's colours and patterns. This is the first one I've seen speckled with bright orange spots.

When I posted it on #iNaturalist, squidney8 posted a link of the local lichen, *Brigantiaea chrysosticta*, which also is grey with orange spots.

This colour morph of *Declana floccosa* would blend in incredibly well when on a *Brigantiaea chrysosticta*. Still, is it aware enough of its colour morph to known which background to sit on?

moth: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/330659205
lichen: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/55779194

#mothodon #moths #nz #camouflage #iNaturalistNZ

I'm thinking more about the life cycle of these cinnabar moths. It's quite remarkable. The eggs get laid late spring and take about 2 weeks to hatch. The caterpillars eat for about a month through the summer. They then pupate, and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

They wait through all of Autumn and Winter and early Spring.

Then, the adult moths emerge to mate and lay eggs and the cycle starts again.

They're dormant as pupae for about 10 months of every year!

https://digitallibrary.landcareresearch.co.nz/digital/api/collection/p20022coll21/id/41/download

#moths #mothodon #CinnabarMoth

Look! Cinnabar moth!

Last summer I was surprised to find cinnabar moth caterpillars feeding on the native pahokoraka, Senecio quadridentatus, in the middle of Christchurch city, NZ. Cinnabar moths were released to control the European pasture weed ragwort back in the 1940s.

I collected four caterpillars and fed them on pahokoraka leaves until they pupated on 16 January. I put them on some scrunched up newsprint in a plastic container and put that outside in a shaded area of our garden. Today, three adult moths emerged.

They're day-flying moths which retain the poisons of their host plants and advertise that to would-be predators with their bright colours,

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/328816568

#mothodon #moths #nz #Christchurch #BiologicalControl

@dubh Thanks. Izatha are something special. I get three species in our garden, and I saw them all this Spring. Two are pale with the zig-zag patterning (Izatha huttonii and Izatha katadiktya) and one is grey with more subtle patterns (Izatha convulsella).

Of course, the Queen of the Lichen Moths is not an Izatha but an Ipana. In the South Island we have the Purerehua, Ipana egregia. That is found on Banks Peninsula but I've not had one of these in our garden (yet).

A couple of weeks back I was talking with NZ lepidopterist Brian Patrick who told me that he suggested to the Reserve Bank that this moth should be on a dollar note. It's now the one on the NZ$100. So thanks Brian.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/260786636

#mothodon #moths #nz #LichenMoth

@alpinefolk Here's my set-up. I've got a mercury vapour light bulb that's super bright and has some UV light that the moths like. I screw it into one of our indoor lights and put it outside next to a pale house wall. It does the trick nicely.

#mothodon #moths, #nz

OK. Four more moths. These are the four species that were new to our garden this spring.

I've been consistently putting out the moth light four nights every season since July 2021 and I'm still finding new species.

Blackheaded Leafroller, *Ctenopseustis obliquana*: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324798689

Golden-brown Fern Moth, *Musotima nitidalis*: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324611764

*Tingena melinella*: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324798772

Golden-brown Fern Moth *Musotima nitidalis*: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324611764

They're all native moths. Welcome to our garden.

#mothodon #moths #Lepdidoptera #entomology #insects #nz

Wait, I've got more moths! (Yes, it's your lucky day.)

(Species names are in the alt-text)

#moths #mothodon #nz #Christchurch

More moths? Yes, more moths!

The first moth is Chloroclystis inductata and it's an unusual colour morph of it. For all the variation in this one species from our garden so far, see https://inaturalist.nz/observations?place_id=150600&preferred_place_id=6803&taxon_id=407383&user_id=jon_sullivan&verifiable=any

The names of the others are in the alt-text.

#nz #mothodon #lepidoptera #Christchurch #insects #entomology

Moths? You want moths? I've got moths!

This week I finished uploading to #iNaturalist my four nights of moth lighting at our house, which I do once a season. I got 65 moth species this Spring, including four new species for our garden.

Here are some of the highlights. I like how much diversity of forms and colours and textures are amongst moths. It's a shame that they're so underappreciated compared to their showy daytime relatives. NZ has some great moths.

(The moth names are in the alt-text.)

https://inaturalist.nz/observations?project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2025-canterbury-waitaha&taxon_id=47157&user_id=jon_sullivan&verifiable=any

#mothodon #nz #Christchurch #insects #nature #UrbanEcology

Here are four visitors to our house this week. It's the first time I've seen this wee native moth species, Crypsitricha mesotypa.

I just checked and I'm now up to 101 species, mostly insects, that I've found and photographed inside our house.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations?place_id=150600&project_id=2899&user_id=jon_sullivan&verifiable=any

#nz #nature #iNaturalist #insects #entomology #myhome #mothodon

@FoxesInLove So far New Zealanders have found 122 different species of moths in our houses. (No foxes yet though.)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=2899&taxon_id=47157&verifiable=any&view=species&without_taxon_id=47224

#Lepidoptera #mothodon

Moth. #Photography #BlackAndWhite #Mothodon

All moths are amazing. And then Eudocima iridescens from tropical Queensland turns that up to 11.

I was just looking again at this magic moth that David White uploaded to #inaturalist in 2019.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/35720024

#mothodon #colours #Lepidoptera #Australia #Queensland

I've been doing my quarterly moth light nights at my home this week. It's winter so some nights have been much better than others. I've now got a stack of photos to sort through and get ready to upload to #iNaturalist.

Here's a couple of moth wings as a teaser of what's to come. Each moth wing is like a small piece of art.

#Lepidoptera #nz #mothodon #insects #nature

I like this article in Nature Canada celebrating Canada’s (and North America’s) largest moth, the Cecropia moth. It *is* an excellent moth.

“Adult Cecropia moths last about two weeks. They can’t eat during this stage, since they have no digestive system or moveable mouth parts. About the only thing they can do is mate! An adult Cecropia moth is basically a work of art designed to create more works of art.”

https://naturecanada.ca/news/blog/the-cecropia-moth-art-on-the-wing/

#mothodon #Lepidoptera #NatureCanada #Canada #nature

One of the recent iNaturalist highlights from Banks Peninsula is this little moth, that Mel Whiting photographed in the Port Hills above Taylor’s Mistake at the end of May. It was photographed visiting a yellow flower of the native oxalis, *Oxalis exilis*. They weren’t sure what it was and uploaded it to iNat to find out.

Thanks to the identifications and comments by NZ moth experts Neville Hudson and Robert Hoare, it turns out to be a rare, and still undescribed, endemic NZ moth species, currently only known as *Scythris* “stripe”.

Robert commented “Yes, amazing discovery! I think maybe only the 4th ever seen.”

Two of those four observations were made on #iNaturalist, the other being a moth I found in the Port Hills above near the Sign of the Kiwi back in May 2022.

Every observation counts, especially for rarely seen species like these species that we know so little about.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/285550497

#Lepidoptera #mothodon #nz #CitizenScience #RareSpecies #iNaturalistNZ

While leaving for the gym a tiny moth flew into our home. It’s a double striped pug.

#moth #mothodon

And a Silver Y

#Nature #NaturePhotography #Moths
#mothodon

Here's another in what's turning into my series of observations of why June 2025 is very weird.

This is the New Zealand magpie moth, mōkarakara, and it overwinters as a larva. It's one of my favourite NZ moths and I've been consistently counting every one I see for over 20 years.

Yesterday I found the first adult magpie moth I have ever seen in June, and it's freshly emerged from its pupa.

She's a female. I expect she's going to struggle to find a mate at the moment, as most potential suitors are still dormant.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/291605802
#Lepdidoptera #mothodon #insects #ClimateChange #nature