A comfortable moth

In a discussion on The Bug Geek's blog, about our attempts to photograph lively insects, sometimes "cheating" by cooling them in the fridge or with ice packs to slow them down (which I resort to almost always), Ted MacRae wrote, "I’ve yet to take (or see) a photo of an insect that has been cooled (by whatever means) that doesn’t somehow look “off.”"

I've been thinking about that. So when Laurie brought me another small moth, I decided to keep it comfortable at room temperature.

Found in a bag of bird seed.

The moth was very small, smaller than the usual bird seed moths I see, a dull greyish tan, with brown and yellowish accents. I left him loose on my desk, after a brief resting period under a pill bottle to calm him down. As he walked around, slowly, spending a bit of time grooming himself, I followed with the camera.  He didn't seem to notice, but after a bit, he wandered off to the edge and flew away.

The colour seems different depending on the angle of the light.

I was surprised by the photos; his colours show up much more vividly than I had expected. Was it because he is warm enough? Does a cold insect get pale, like we would do?

Quite a shiny little critter.

The discussion also touched on the substrate; a natural substrate may work better, both as a natural background, and as a way to keep the insect feeling comfortable. I had used the white cloth to set my camera's white balance, and the moth walked onto it from my desk, so we went with that. Next time, maybe I'll use a layer of bird seed for these moths, since that's where they show up.

And patience. Or "brutal persistence," as Ted put it. Very important. I can do that, usually. But an unfettered insect, with the use of his wings; can he be patient? Not this guy: it was barely three minutes from the time I took the first photo before he'd had enough, and flew away.