Beautiful white & grey-spotted tiger moth - Arachnis picta San Mateo County, California, USA September 29, 2016
Found torpid on a cool afternoon. Walking past I barely noticed it (good camouflage), only realizing it was a moth as I bent down for a closer look.
After taking a few photos of it crouched down on the ground, I noticed a few small red spots on the legs that I initially thought might be mites. Wondering what the hind-wing and under-wing might look like, I nudged the moth a bit and it began to walk, exhibiting deep red patches on its fore-femora.
Next, I gently picked it up. I was then stunned by the rich, bright-red, and yellow/orange of the hind-wings, under-wing, and abdominal dorsum.
The 4th photo in the series was taken as it walked on my pant leg. After a while it stopped and began to "shiver" (i.e. very rapidly and continuously flutter its wings through a small angle) to warm its thoracic muscles up to flight temperature so as to flee. It did this for at least 40 seconds or more, during which time I took the last photo here (at 1/250 of a second, which "froze" the wing motion fairly well). Shortly thereafter it flew off...fast and powerfully; straight and sloping upward at first, then arcing off higher and to the south. Seemed like it had flown more than 80 meters in 4 seconds or so (e.g. average speed of about 45 miles per hour).
Images of this individual: tag all Contributed by Aaron Schusteff on 1 October, 2016 - 11:22am Last updated 1 October, 2016 - 12:27pm |