First Macromoth!
Here's my first big moth on my first night of setting out a light for moths!
Big as in about 3.3 centimeters wingspan. I'm pretty sure it is a member of family Geometridae - aka adult form of an inchworm. Too bad my first one couldn't be pink with blue spots, that would narrow it down much more quickly than "Um, it's small, and gray, and speckly..."
After looking at random pictures online, I gave up for a while until I realized that I do indeed have a moth guidebook, or rather a caterpillar guidebook. But it has lovely color images of hundreds of the most common adult moths - and anything flying at 47 degrees F has to be pretty noticeable simply for its rarity - so I flipped through the Geometrid section, and the genus Phigalia seemed to be the best match - it's the right size, the right color and pattern, and right flight season. Which one out of the three common species of the state, hmmm, still working on that. If it is a Phigalia, it is most definitely a male because the females are flightless, with tiny vestigial wings.
Big as in about 3.3 centimeters wingspan. I'm pretty sure it is a member of family Geometridae - aka adult form of an inchworm. Too bad my first one couldn't be pink with blue spots, that would narrow it down much more quickly than "Um, it's small, and gray, and speckly..."
After looking at random pictures online, I gave up for a while until I realized that I do indeed have a moth guidebook, or rather a caterpillar guidebook. But it has lovely color images of hundreds of the most common adult moths - and anything flying at 47 degrees F has to be pretty noticeable simply for its rarity - so I flipped through the Geometrid section, and the genus Phigalia seemed to be the best match - it's the right size, the right color and pattern, and right flight season. Which one out of the three common species of the state, hmmm, still working on that. If it is a Phigalia, it is most definitely a male because the females are flightless, with tiny vestigial wings.