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Photo#341970
Dark bark chip moth - Chrysodeixis includens

Dark bark chip moth - Chrysodeixis includens
Ocean Pines, Worcester County, Maryland, USA
October 9, 2009
The Brugmansia in our front yard is in full autumn bloom now, covered with dangling trumpets that give out a pervasive sweet smell. It attracts moths by the droves, especially at night, and even in the morning I sometimes see one bumbling about the flowers, acting drunk. This one settled for a few minutes on the side of one of the flowers and at once morphed into a piece of dry bark, with no head and only two legs (not opposite each other) visible. Only close inspection could show that it was a living insect. The white "lichen spots" on the sides of the wing were a clever touch.

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Dark bark chip moth - Chrysodeixis includens Dark bark chip moth - Chrysodeixis includens

Very similar
Hi Bill, Thought you might be interested in this moth , I think your photo is the most similar I've seen to it so far, but I am waiting for the moth experts to weigh in. Yours has a rather prominent white spot, mine does not. Anyhow, thought you might be interested since the photo was taken near Preston MD at about the same time of year as yours.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Although these can be very hard to distinguish from the Common Looper, the precise pattern of the white markings satisfactorily matches the Soybean Looper here. (See species Info page for detailed comparison w/ Common Looper.)

 
Interesting, though...
... that this specimen of a Common Looper sticks out the same mismatched legs as mine. Perhaps a disguise tactic common to the genus?

Not an expert but...
...please take a look at Soybean Looper (Pseudoplusia includens)


 
Pseudoplusia includens seems a good match
I explored a bit, and it's certainly true that soybeans are a common crop in this area. Also I had a tomato plant in a large pot that was partly defoliated by a horde of small green looper worms that I'd never seen before. (Definitely not a hornworm.) As I see that Pseudoplusia includens has a green larva that can feed on tomatoes (and sweet potatoes, which also are common here both as ornamentals and back-yard crops), it's possible that this moth was the adult of one of these worms I failed to skoosh.

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