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Post by bluemoth on Jan 5, 2011 10:12:16 GMT -8
Some weeks ago while looking for beetle grubs to rear I found a wood eating moth larva. It is cream colored with a light brown head. At first I thought it was a beetle larva. When disturbed it moved like a moth larva and it had pro-legs. I would guess it is after fungus that is braking down the wood. But must eat the wood to get the fungus. It is small so will be a micro moth. Is this larva possibly a rare find? Has any one els found a moth larva eating wood? I live on the west coast of the USA. Right now the larva is making a small silken cocoon right using bits of wood.
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Post by admin on Jan 5, 2011 10:37:23 GMT -8
Sounds interesting. Can you post a picture of it?
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Post by bluemoth on Jan 5, 2011 12:54:31 GMT -8
I did not take a photo of larva. I will take a photo of moth when it hatches.
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Post by nomihoudai on Jan 5, 2011 13:21:38 GMT -8
There is plenty of moth species eating wood, Sesiidae, some Micromoth families and Cossidae that get really huge. So just getting a wood eating caterpillar is not rare, but the moth that will hatch may be a rare find, for example a Sesiidae female, the are hard to catch.
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Post by bluemoth on Jan 5, 2011 20:13:48 GMT -8
Thank you for the info nomihoudai. It is to small to be a Cossidae. It might be a Sesiidae. That will be nice if it is one of those hard to collect females.
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Post by Chris Grinter on Jan 5, 2011 21:49:54 GMT -8
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Jan 6, 2011 5:49:22 GMT -8
Females of Sesidae moths are extremely difficult collect. I have collected Sesiid moths for over 30 years. I collected 48 species and have 673 specimens in my collection. The vast majority were collecting in Pheromone traps which only attract males. Of the 673 specimens, only 51 are females. Some species of Sesiid moths are only known from males.
The species that I have the most females is one I collect last summer in eastern Colorado. Melitta grandis and Melitta gloriosa. I collected them around their host plant Coyote Mellon. These are very large sesiids and absolutely gorgeous. These are both females of which I collected 7 females of M. grandis and 4 females of M. gloriosa. Both mimic large wasps. All sesiid moths mimic wasps.
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Jan 6, 2011 5:55:00 GMT -8
One photograph per post. The previous post is a female of Melitta gloriosa. The photograph in this post is a female Melitta grandis.Attachments:
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Post by boghaunter1 on Jan 6, 2011 9:41:36 GMT -8
Interesting moths the Sesidae...I've only accidentally run across maybe 6-8 specimens in 30+ yrs. here in Sask. I'd like to see what the wasp spp. models look like? Are any known/photos available on the net for your 2 pictured spp.? Maybe you collect the model wasps as well?
John K.
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