Portable shelter

On a stormy night a week ago, a little moth warmed his feet on my window.

Geometer moth, possibly the Bruce Spanworm, (BugGuide) a winter flier.

It occurred to me, looking at the photo, that those feathery wings must work like a double-layer tent, holding the meager heat from my window around the moth's body. Only the head, with those big, purply eyes, and the two front legs, are exposed to the weather; even the antennae are neatly tucked underneath the wings.

Smart moth.

Spring fever in November

The temperature is hovering around freezing; frost on the grass only thaws in direct sunlight. Spiders and beetles have gone into hiding. There are no flies to eat, anyhow.

And now, a tribe of tiny, fragile moths have come out to play in the cold. I found four on one window yesterday, not sleeping; when I touched them, they flew away.

A few days ago, I caught a slower-moving one.

Bruce spanworm moth, Operophtera bruceata. ID'd by the line of single dots at the edge of the wing.

There are several species of similar winter-flying moths around here. They all have one thing in common; if they're flying, they're males, out looking for a mate.

The females don't look (to us) like moths at all: they have just a hint of undeveloped wing stubs. (See this photo in BugGuide.) When they emerge from their pupae, in October or November, they crawl up tree trunks, emitting pheromones, and wait for the males to find them.

Then they lay their eggs one at a time in cracks of the bark. In frozen cracks of the frozen bark. And the tiny eggs develop over the winter, changing colour from green to orange before they hatch in early spring.

I don't think I've ever seen a female, but where the males congregate, they're somewhere near.  I've always found the males on walls or windows; maybe I should be looking on nearby trees for their mates.

(Unfortunately for this guy, my spider had just laid eggs and was hungry, so he went into her box and became a spanworm wrap.)

Christmas moth

Last month, little brown moths were coming in my window to die; Seabrooke identified them as Bruce Spanworm moths. They are the last of the year's moths, still flying in November.

For the last few days, one has been hanging around by the front door. Every time I passed by, it was there, but in a different spot; it's still awake, even at the tail end of December. I eventually brought it inside.

Yes, it's the same as the last one.

I was intrigued by the antennae; each segment has two tiny prongs pointing downward.

Side view, showing body rings.

 The moth was very active; he kept wandering around, heading for the exits, as I tried to get a decent photo. (Only male Spanworm moths fly; the females are crawlers.) So why, when I called it quits, did he decide he liked my light box and wasn't going to leave, after all? I wanted to fold up the box and put it away, but the moth ignored my shooing motions. I set the box aside to put away when "Spanny" left.

Two hours later, he's still wandering around under the light.

I'm going to bed. Sorry, Spanny, I'm turning off your sunlamp. Goodnight!