(Photos by Christy Solo, Illinois Valley News)
PINK MOTHS
To celebrate Valentine’s Day a week late we’re going to meet seven area moths who look pretty in pink!
Did you know we had so many sweetly colored moths here in our backyard?
Some of these moths we’ve met before, some are new.
Before we list their names and some fun facts about each species, give yourself a quick pop quiz!
Some pairs, and one trio of our pictured pretties, are fairly closely related. Can you deduct which pairs belong to different branches of the same family tree?
Let’s take a look at the names – each picture in the collage is numbered so we can keep track. There are clues to our related pairs in some of the scientific monikers.
- Ceanothus silk moth (Hyalophora euryalus euryalus)
- Pandora moth (Coloradia pandora)
- Pyrausta grotea (no common name)
- Elegant sheep moth (Hemileuca eglanterina)
- Agrochola pulchella (no common name)
- Mesogona subcuprea (no common name)
- Southern purple mint moth (Pyrausta laticlavia)
You probably deduced that numbers 3 and 7 are related; they have the same genus name “Pyrausta” and they look very similar. Gold star!
While moths that look very much alike are often not closely related, for our rosy group, looks are a clue.
So from that you probably concluded that numbers 5 and 6 are also closely related. Right again! They are in the same Subtribe: Xylenina.
That leaves numbers 1, 2 and 4. All three are in the same Superfamily: Bombycoidea, but 2 and 4 are more closely related to each other. They are in the Tribe Hemileucini.
While all our moths have a color in common, they run the gamut in size from the small southern purple mint moth with their three-quarters of an inch wingspan up to the ceanothus with a whopping six-inch wingspan.
Each of these moths was found in my yard in Trail, so they all enjoy the riparian habitat, and who can blame them? The riparian zone has something for everyone.
The larvae of each of our seven pink-tacular moths has their own dietary requirements (AKA host plants).
Ceanothus have a broad diet (in moth larva terms) and will eat cherry, gooseberry, willow, manzanita, madrone and others.
Pandora ‘pillars pine for pine. Needles of ponderosa, Jeffrey, lodgepole and sugar are all on their menu.
It’s all in the name for the southern purple mint moth – their young do, in fact, eat plants in the mint family. However, they will nosh on rosemary as well. For now, not enough is known about the vibrant fuchsia P. grotea to decipher their favored food. Whatever their larvae like, it must grow in our yards. Moreover, P. grotea can’t be a pest because there are too few of them around to even study.
Elegant sheep moth ‘pillars are quite goth looking, with black bodies and bright orange spikes. You can find them dining on rose, cherry, willow and birch.
Not only is the adult Agrochola pulchella moth dazzlingly beautiful, but their young chomp on blackberry plants, so thankfully they are at least doing some damage to the invasive Himalayan blackberries.
Before we delve into the diet of baby Mesogona subcuprea moths, here’s a fun fact! Most M. subcuprea moths are tan in color, but here in our little area we have the pictured petal pink morph and (for now) no one knows why.
We do also get the tan morph, and some are even a pretty mix of tan with subtle rosy highlights.
The “must have” foodplant for M. subcuprea is white oak (Quercus garryana), another tree we have an abundance of in the Upper Rogue.
So there you have the rundown on the blushy bold and pastel moths you can see from spring through late fall in our area, and a nice list of plants to plant to woo them your way.
