Moths know what date it is?

The more I observe nature the more questions I have. Last Summer I started watching the moths attracted to our Mercury Vapor light (which I only turn on when I plan to monitor Moths)
Well as life would have it I turn on my "Moth Light" almost every night I'm home. It has been an enlightening education into the night world.

Now it isn't unusual for Shelley and I on most evenings to grab a flashlight checking out the "Light" and then head out to patrol the flower beds around the yard just before we turn the Moth light off for the night and head to bed... Its amazing all the activity we have been missing in our diurnal world... If we could rid ourselves of our day jobs we could happily stay up even later...

The Moths pictured above are members of one of my favorite groups. Haploa's are medium sized striking moths with lots if individual variability within species... But what are the chances that the species emerges and finds our house on exactly the same date 2 years in a row?

Reading Ted Sargent's "Legion's of the Night" I found his dates for the Ilia Underwing Catacola ilia to correspond well with my discovery of this species at Quabbin... It was a very tight window of a week or so that Professor Sargent had recorded the species.

But this summer is very different than last. We've all complained about the rainy cool weather. The lack of butterflies and river dragonflies in June and July... But here right on schedule is Haploa clymene...

Maybe the world will OK after all

dave@dhsmall.net
http://dhsmall.blogspot.com/