Anita’s Blog — Achromatic Beauty

There it was! The long-awaited for visitor — the giant leopard moth — in all its achromatic beauty, perched on the moth sheet.

Giant Leopard Moth, Hypercompe scribonia (Tiger moths tribe) Genus Hypercompe — one of seven species in the genus in North America. Wingspan — 2 ¼ to 3 ½ inches — males are larger than females.

I began tracking giant leopard moth caterpillars in May when I discovered a small black and orange caterpillar eating holes in the leaves of a vine I was encouraging to grow at my arbor. Since there were very few leaves on that vine start, I researched to see what other plants might do for a host for giant leopard moth caterpillars. I found there were many. (See https://rgvctmn.org/anitas-blog-great-caterpillar-finds/)

Now that I’m tuned in to the look of giant leopard moth caterpillars, they seem to be everywhere. Just after daybreak, I find them on one plant or another, stationery at the top of the plants whether a flimsy stalk of a dayflower or sturdier branches of larger shrubs. The caterpillars move on quickly as the sky gets light.

I applaud these caterpillars in that they use so many different plants as host. That’s got to be great assurance for the continuation of the species.

The variety of plants intrigued me and I began listing the plants where I would see the giant caterpillars each morning. I’ve listed 21 different species to date; it’s about half and half, native to non-native. Asterisks denote native plants in the list below.

• Anacua*
• Berlandier’s trumpets*
• Climbing milkweed*
• Confederate Rose
• Day flower*
• Dutchman’s pipe
• Fiddlewood*
• Frost weed
• Grapefruit tree
• Lantana camera*
• Mistflower* (fall blooming)
• Purple bleeding heart vine
• Scarlet Porterweed
• Scorpion tail heliotrope*
• Snail seed vine*
• Snapdragon vine*
• Split leaf philodendron
• Tri-color Sea Hibiscus
• Tropical passion vine — Passiflora brighamii AKA: Lavender and orange batwing passion flower vine
• Turk’s cap*
• Yellow butterfly vine

I had a false start with the first moth I identified as a Giant Leopard moth. I’d checked my moth sheet in the wee hours of one morning, when I first spied it. I was a bit disappointed in its un-giant-like size. Still, I was pleased as punch to have been able to photograph it. I uploaded the photo in the field using my phone app for iNaturalist.org, and IDd it in the light from my headlamp as giant leopard moth.

Later, at the computer, as I was reviewing Joseph’s mothing blog post —  https://www.stbctmn.org/post/mothing — I noted that his giant leopard moth was captioned with a different scientific name.

I pulled up my moth photo on the computer screen and did the same with Joseph’s photo and started comparing the two moths. I immediately saw differences in the markings on the head. Back to the drawing board, I re-loaded my photo into iNaturalist and finally ID’d my specimen as Hypercompe caudate.

Hypercompe caudate — found in Texas, Southern Arizona, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. Wing span of 2.2 inches for males and 3.38 inches for females. Joseph’s moth is Hypercompe oslari — found in extreme south Texas and south into Mexico. Reference Wikipedia.

According to bugguide.net, there are seven Hypercompe species in North America, five of which are noted at this interesting link: https://bugguide.net/node/view/305/bgpage

So, what’s all the hype about moths? Besides moths being great pollinators for night-blooming plants and crops, and therefore important in seed production, I found a couple of interesting bits of information:

Because of their abundance, moths are major players — at the bottom of the food chain. That was sad since I’ve just discovered a new pastime with mothing. On the other end of that spectrum, moths are a huge source of food for bats — and who doesn’t love bats, right?! Reference Matthew Shepherd in an interview for “OurAmazingPlanet.” (Matthew Shepherd is communication director and senior conservation associate at the Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization focused on insect conservation in Portland, Oregon, as quoted in an interview at this link: https://www.livescience.com/21933-moth-week-facts.html)

Other bits of info:

• Some moths have evolved defenses against their winged predators (bats). Tiger moths produce ultrasonic clicking sounds that effectively jam bat sonar, inhibiting the bat’s ability to find them. — M. Shepherd https://www.livescience.com/5578-wow-moths-jam-bat-sonar.html

• “Caterpillars are one of the most important things that moths offer in the ecosystem. They are food for everything else.” M. Shepherd
• An estimated 95 percent of nesting birds rear their young on insects, and caterpillars make up a significant part of that. M. Shepherd

Another reference states: “To avoid bats, the giant leopard moth has more options. Remarkably, the moths have ears that are behind the spot where its hind wings join the body. Lepidopterists believe these organs enable giant leopard moths to detect the echolocation sonar the bats use to detect their prey. The moth even has the ability to produce clicking sounds. The theory is these sounds are used to jam the bat’s echolocation system.” https://georgiawildlife.com/out-my-backdoor-meet-giant-leopard-moth

After discovering a good number of giant leopard moth caterpillars for the last two months, and finally finding a giant leopard moth on my moth sheet, I’ve had three more show up. One was sitting in the grass at the door of one of our out buildings. It stayed its position all day.

The following day, a larger giant leopard moth was on the floor of the outbuilding and a smaller one was on a paper towel on a countertop in the barn. I don’t make it a practice to handle wildlife, but I wanted the moth to be able to navigate the nighttime ski. It was easy to coax it from the paper towel onto my finger tip so I could put it next to the larger one for comparison, and yes, a photo op.

The two moths stayed in the quiet shade of the building all day. The building has a sawdust floor and the walls don’t reach the ground. This would allow the moths to escape at nightfall and go on about their business. Both moths were gone by the next morning.