Moth Monday: Garden Tortrix Moth

Monday, July 27th, 2009

gardentortrixmoth
Garden Tortrix Moth, Clepsis peritana, Hodges 3688
Irvine, CA, 2009-07

Today’s moth is a fairly commons species, and comes to light on my balcony fairly often; but it’s also relatively small at just over a centimeter. This photo is several times actual size. I didn’t get a decent photo of one until quite recently. It’s a pest of strawberry farms, and although Orange County is mostly paved over these days, there are still a few farms dotted around here and there including Tanaka Farms just a couple of miles down the road from me.
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Moth Monday: Along Came a Spider

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Moth with Spider on Pine
Glyphodes onychinalis – Hodges#5199.1
Fullerton Arboretum, June 28, 2009

The moth is an Asian species that’s been in Southern California for the last 10 years or so. It was first identified in 2000 down the road in Newport Beach; and I’ve also found it on my balcony in Irvine in the evening. I have not ID’d the spider. I didn’t even notice it in the field.
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Moth Monday Goes Out At Night: Aglossa cacamica

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Lately I’ve been wandering around my apartment complex at night seeing what’s attracted to the lights with some success. Most of the moths I find are fairly small–a centimeter or less–but this is actually a pretty large one, about 3 centimeters:

Large moth on street light
Aglossa cacamica – Hodges#5514
Irvine, CA, 2009-07-11

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The Return of Moth Monday: Dicymolomia opuntialis

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Just when you thought it was safe to go out at night, Moth Monday returns! Today’s moth is a Southern California speciality, Hodges 4891 – Dicymolomia opuntialis. Thanks to Bob Patterson for the ID.

dicymolomia-opuntialis
Hodges#4891 Dicymolomia opuntialis
Fullerton Arboretum, Fullerton, California, 2009-6-28

It’s in the family of Crambid Snout Moths, a group of fairly small moths (a centimeter or less) that I’ve been finding more and more of lately, mostly by virtue of using a 1:1 macro lens and going out at night. This, however, I found in the morning at Fullerton Arboretum, perched on a light. It had probably stayed there all night.

Brokenbacked Bug

Sunday, May 31st, 2009
From Nix Nature Center, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, 2009-05-24

Brokenbacked Bug (Taylorilygus apicalis) on California Bush Sunflower

Just a Honeybee

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

But still the best shot I’ve managed with the new DSLR setup so I thought it was worth posting. Setting the aperture to f/8.0 and using a flash helps a lot.

honeybee close-up

The advantage to shooting honeybees is that they’re common, easy-to-find, and not especially nervous around people or cameras. In fact, in most locations they seem to easily outnumber all other bees combined. In the Americas and Australia, they are an introduced species that weren’t present at all until a few hundred years ago. Possibly they have displaced native bees and pollinators, though the evidence is unclear. (Alien Species in North America and Hawaii, George W. Cox, p. 48.) If they did, it likely happened several hundred years ago, before most folks noticed and now they just seem like a native part of the fauna. Possibly reduction of honeybee populations in non-agricultural areas might have a cascading effect on many non-native plant species that depend on honeybees for pollination.