#fruitworm moth

An elegant-looking moth sleeping on a grass blade on a fine spring day! I saw a suspiciously-shaped white spot on a grass blade from a distance and had to go investigate. This moth is likely another bird poop mimic, a pretty common appearance for many moths that works pretty well on both predators and people. Unfortunately for them, my eye is trained to pick suspicious specks out of the leaves, so they rarely ever get by me. Fortunately, I'm not looking to eat them!

The adult is also small, but it has a lot of character. The white moth has a dark tuft of hair at the base of the thorax that almost seems fleshy. A round, brown marking sits below it, and a second, dark gray marking sits below the brown one. Streaks of gray cross the wings and small black dots border the bottom edge. The overall visual effect of such markings gives the moth the appearance of bird droppings. Such mimicry helps keep it safe from predators during the spring and summer months of activity.

Green speckled fruitworm moth friend!