Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#1254021
Nearby was another Fairy Moth  - Adela septentrionella

Nearby was another Fairy Moth - Adela septentrionella
Swiftwater, Umpqua National Forest, Douglas County, Oregon, USA
May 28, 2016
on a shrub right along the Umpqua River

Images of this individual: tag all
Nearby was another Fairy Moth  - Adela septentrionella Nearby was another Fairy Moth  - Adela septentrionella Nearby was another Fairy Moth  - Adela septentrionella

Moved
Moved from Adela.

Looks like Adela septentrionella, and indeed that's what it keys to in Powell(1969). This is a male, as can be discerned from the very long antennae (> 3 times body length), and the long tuft of bushy black scales on the head (females of this species typically have orange scales on the head).

It's on rosaceus flowers in the photos, which at first I supposed would likely be the host plant, Ocean-spray (Holodiscus discolor...Oregon images here). But that species has flowers with pale anthers and paniculate inflorescence...whereas the anthers are dark in your photos, and the inflorescence is a dome-like umbel, so I think it's ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus, Oregon images here). According to the Oregon Flora Atlas, both species grow in much of western Oregon.

Although this is an adult nectaring, I wonder if the larvae are just as content with Physocarpus as they are with Holodiscus?

Moved

Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to activate your changes.