Front Door Light Moth Series, Part IIX

This morning, as I turned to close the front door behind me - It was impossible not to notice this distinctive pink and yellow moth, clinging to the front of my home just under the front door light.

I haven't been paying attention to the moths in quite awhile, in fact - it has been almost a year since I've mentioned a Front Door Light Moth - the last one was mentioned on 30 September 2007 to be precise.

Honestly, I don't remember what my habits were before the past year erupted into a race with my Mother's lung cancer.  Everything routine in my life became somewhat scrambled - and now here I find myself, two months after her death, standing at my front door, staring at a moth I've only seen pictures of before, and wondering when looking at the moths before I left each morning stopped being routine.  When did I stop swimming?  And reading each evening?  And wandering in the garden in the early morning (when the light was best) with my camera?  My life now is a bit chaotic, unscheduled - definitely not routine.  I haven't settled back into my life after last year - and I am unsure of what I will settle into in the future.  Perhaps that is the joy of this life, yes?

But this moth stopped me cold.  Instead of going to my car, I put my briefcase down and went back inside and got my camera.  I snapped several images of this creature, and then I went inside to find out what it was - it's colors were so unique, it should be easy to identify.

It's a rosy maple moth - Dryocampa rubicunda.  They like maples - but I also read somewhere that they like oak trees as well.  They're considered common (you can see here where they've been recorded), although it was the first one that I've seen in my little one acre of land.  In looking up some information on it, I came across two interesting sites: 'butterflies, moths and caterpillars' and 'Moths in a Connecticut Yard'.  As an admirer of biological diversity for the simple sake of the diversity itself - I loved going through these sites and seeing what these people had observed and captured images of.

I need to get back to the observations I can make at my own front door light.  I need to get back into the routine of paying attention, the routine of observing...thanks to the presence of a rather garish little moth creature that surprised me this morning.

Comments

[Les]

Is it simply pretty, or is there an evolutionary survival strategy in that color combination? Either way, it is quite something and you were lucky to have seen it.

[Pat]

Beautiful! I've been seeing cool moths lately. Perhaps I'm just more in tune for some reason. A brilliant orange one on the glass door at work, a pale yellowish green one with wingtails fluttering outside my window one night - I thought at first it was a weird kind of bat! Perhaps it was a butterfly? Wondrous!

[Curmudgeon]

Thank you for taking the time to snap this shot. I've never seen one of these. It looks like it's dressed up for a dance recital!

[Annie in Austin]

Even the name Rosy Maple Moth is pretty - with its wings folded, this moth looks like it belongs in with a swirl of maple helicopters.

Two months is a really short time, Pam, and you have a very complicated life. It seems pretty wonderful to me that you could notice this moth and bring it to our attention.

By any chance have you seen the post by Frances of Faire Garden about vacationing at Edisto Beach?
http://fairegarden.blogspot.com/2008/06/beach-vacation-2008.html

Or the post by Gail of Clay and Limestone about vacationing at Folly Beach?
http://clayandlimestone.blogspot.com/2008/06/flora-fauna-and-fun-on-folly.html

South Carolina is the place to be this summer, I guess!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

[Lily and Kate]

Lily pointed out that these moths look like the maple seeds (helicopters)...hence their proclivity for maple trees?

[Layanee]

Who says that pink and yellow don't go together? They are definitely misinformed!

[Kim]

That moth is way cool. Like bright summery sorbets.

[Pam]

Thanks everyone - I was a bit surprised by this one (and maybe Lily's comment above is one to consider?)

Annie, thanks for these links - I'll definitely have to take a look. SC must be the place to visit this summer!

[N. Butler]

Just let one of these back out. Very unusual coloring.