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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Fairy Moths and kin (Adeloidea) » Fairy Moths (Adelidae) » Adelinae » Adela » Adela septentrionella - Hodges#0221 (Adela septentrionella)
Photo#51502
Adela septentrionella - male
Copyright © 2006 John Davis

Adela septentrionella - Male
Mosier, Scenic Highway, Twin Tunnels, Wasco County, Oregon, USA
May 9, 2006
This tiny moth has antennae several times longer than its body length. Today there were hundreds, if not thousands, of these moths doing their "fairy dance flight". They were using many different kinds of plants as "landing spots" for the dance, Columbia desert parsely, poison oak, Garry oak, ocean spray, big leaf maple, among others. Very fun to watch.

Images of this individual: tag all
Adela septentrionella - male Adela septentrionella - male
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Contributed by John Davis on 9 May, 2006 - 10:45pm
Last updated 24 February, 2015 - 1:19pm

Wow...how delightful to see so many!
I'd like to see such a congregation.

BTW, the host plant for the larvae is creambush (Holodiscus bicolor), which appears among the plants you listed above.

Also, this one is a male, from the lack of yellow-orange scales on the head. A. septentrionella is one of the species in which females have yellow-to-orange scales on the head and males have head entirely black (e.g. see Walsingham's comments here).

In many others both sexes have heads black. And in eldorada both sexes have orange on the head (though females there usually have a larger portion orange, and it's a brighter orange).
… Aaron Schusteff, 24 February, 2015 - 1:18pm login or register to post comments

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