Material presented throughout this website is for entertainment value and should not to be construed as usable for scientific research or medical advice (regarding bites, etc.).Please consult licensed, degreed professionals for such information. The logo, its written content, and watermarked photographs/imagery are unique to this website (unless where indicated) and is protected by all applicable domestic and international intellectual property laws. When you tell the kids it’s a moth, say it with enthusiasm and a smile.įollow me on Twitter Learn more about the Coastal Botanical Garden at Identification Butterfly Identification Caterpillar Identification Spider ID Fungal Infections on Insects Nursery Web Spider Official State Insects Termite Basics Insect Molting Process Bugs of Tennessee House Pentas, Cannas, Brazilian buttonbushes and sweet almond verbenas seem to be a few of their favorites. Here at the Coastal Botanical Garden, the adults seem to feed on just about everything. Like the luna moth, there is one group in the North and two groups in the South. Their larval hosts are honeysuckles, snowberries, hawthorns and various Prunus species. They have a golden olive thorax and burgundy abdomen with wings that are mostly clear. In other words, you have a pretty good chance of seeing these little, darting acrobats that do indeed look like small hummingbirds. These moths are native in a large, diagonal sweep from Alaska and Canada to Oregon, then east to Maine and south to Texas through Florida. The visitors' faces often look crestfallen because they loved it until it was identified as a moth. Another guest will say, “No, it’s a little hummingbird.” They love trying to photograph it until I step up to say it is a clearwing hummingbird moth (Hemaris thysbe). ![]() Then there is the creature that many visitors claim is a bee. They are best seen at night or in the early morning. If you have never seen one, put this on your bucket list. If you have seen one, it may have been close to a porch light as they are attracted to light. There will be one group in the North and two to three groups in the South. They live about a week and their sole purpose is to mate. The caterpillar’s hosts are white birches, sweetgums, hickories and persimmons. This huge moth is native from Nova Scotia west to Saskatchewan south to east Texas and every state east. One moth that always elicits a “Wow!” is the luna moth (Actias luna). If you live elsewhere, you will not see this moth, but a visit to your local botanical gardens or a watchful eye in your backyard will most likely give you the opportunity to take in other moths and butterflies that will thrill the soul and draw your children away from the television. These two plants, which caterpillar larvae love to eat, are native climbing hemp plants in Florida. Since initially spotting one on ‘Mystic Spires Blue’ salvia, we have seen them on sweet almond verbena and sweet autumn clematis. Scarlet-bodied wasp moths are native to a tight band along the East Coast from South Carolina to Florida and a tight band in deep south Texas. It looks like it would bite, sting or be poisonous in some manner, but its appearance is its defense mechanism. It has an iridescent blue middorsal line that shimmers in the sunlight and transparent wings with black venation. Its abdomen and thorax are the richest red you have ever seen. The scarlet-bodied wasp moth looks like it should be Spider-Man’s partner. Probably it means that this is just one doggone beautiful bug. Perhaps the great outdoors is still the place to be, or maybe it means the fight against “nature deficit disorder,” as Richard Louv so aptly called it in “Last Child in the Woods,” is being won. 1 position on our Facebook page means something. I would like to think that the scarlet-bodied wasp moth climbing to No. The moth, a scarlet-bodied wasp moth (Cosmosoma myrodora), has now beat images of beautiful hummingbirds zebra heliconian butterflies incredible, rarely blooming flowers children looking at pumpkins and the majesty of a million Christmas lights dazzling in our December Nights and Holiday Lights festival. Can you believe a moth post has now moved into first place in terms of the number of hits on the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens at the Historic Bamboo Farm’s Facebook page? Oddly enough, moths brought great joy to my family in various locales of Georgia this summer. ![]() I say “lowly” only in the numerical position of where most place the moth in a list of wonderful, natural things. Over the last few years, I have waxed poetic about birds, bees and butterflies, but I have hardly given a mention to the lowly moth.
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