There’s something about the fresh sea air of the Oregon coast that seems to favor moths. Last year at the Oregon Shorebird Festival, I noted and photographed in the entry way to the lecture hall a very unusual orange and silver specimen that was finally identified as a Matthew’s Ghost Moth, Gazoryctra mathewi. This past week-end, while visiting Lincoln City with my family, I noted another fascinating moth, this time clinging to our hotel room window.
Putting the macro setting of my new Canon PowerShot SD 1100 IS camera through its paces and giving further evidence to my wife that I am truly every bit as “mad for moths” as she has long worried I was, I recorded some respectable images of this unusual creature. I made sure not only to record images of the dorsal view of the moth to give the best visibility of the wing pattern but also to make sure that profile images were captured as well to show the unusual prominences dorsal to the moth’s thorax and abdomen.
Thanks to the help of the fine lepidopterists, both professional and amateur, of the NorWestLeps list serve, the moth was assessed to be a member of the family Noctuidae (Owlet moths), specifically Autographa corusca (no common name), a species common but endemic in wet coastal forests.
Peace and good bird (or moth) watching.
