Monday, 5 July 2010

A Moth Night!

It's supposed to be the Dry Season (Winter) up here in the Australian tropics but it is fairly moist with 8 mm of rain at the moment during the day of this writing. Last night it was relatively warm, 19-20C, and very windy. For some reason this was very favourable for moths and below is a little sample of some of the more colourful ones--plus a locust. See Buck Richardson's website for more north Queensland moths.
Lyclene pyraula: Arctiidae; Lithosinae
Asura polyspila: Arctiidae; Lithosinae
Oeonistis altica: Arctiidae; Lithosinae
Argina astraea: Arctiidae; Arctiinae
Manulea dorsalis: Arctiidae; Lithosinae
Adoxophes templana; Tortricidae; & Nyctemera sp. Arctiidae; Arctiinae
Endotricha mesenterialis: Pyralidae: Endotrichinae
Parotis sp: Pyralidae; Pyraustinae
Arthroschista hilaralis: Pyralidae; Pyraustinae
Hyposidra incomptaria : Geometridae; Ennominae
Bracca rotundata: Geometridae; Ennominae
Zeheba spectabilis: Geometridae; Ennominae
Agathia pisina: Geometridae; Geometrinae
Gnamptoloma aventiaria: Geometridae; Sterrhinae
Asota orbona male: Aganaidae
Asota orbona female: Aganaidae
Asota heliconia: Aganaidae
?Rhynchodontodes chalcias: Noctuidae; Hypeninae
Donuca rubropicta: Noctuidae; Catocalinae, small moth: Heterallactis stenochrysa: Arctiidae; Lithosinae
Earias flavida: Nolidae; Chloeophorinae
And one locust; The Migratory Locust, Locusta migratoria.
This locust must have been distracted to the light as it is not a rainforest inhabitant. It is not the locust that is causing all the problems in southern Australia at the moment. Along those lines please read Denis Wilson's contribution. I have written about this before. See: Insects on the Move.
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5 comments:

  1. randomtruth6 July 2010 at 00:31

    You drew in all those moths in one night? Gotta love the rainforest. Also gotta love all the shapes and colors of your finds - fun, fun photography.

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  2. Pteropus6 July 2010 at 06:45

    We did have a number of these species coming into our place at night here in Cairns but over the years their populations appear to be declining. Could it be partly due to the growth of introduced animals such as the Asian House Gecko?

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  3. Mr. Smiley6 July 2010 at 13:59

    There are about 2000 or more moth species in the rainforests around Kuranda. This is sort of an educated guess. There are probably more.

    I suspect that the "developments" around Cairns and the attendant habitat destruction is more responsible for the demise of our local fauna than house geckos. Insect populations wax and wane and you may find them coming back after a while.

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  4. Katie (Nature ID)7 July 2010 at 07:14

    These moths are fabulous! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Ian McMillan7 July 2010 at 12:07

    Our moths are enjoying the mild winter, too. I'm still getting fruit-piercers like Eudocima fullonia and Mocis spp. which is unheard of for this time of year.

    ReplyDelete