Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Fascinating Moths @ FH

There are more than 180, 000 described species of moths on Earth and probably many more waiting to be discovered and named - due to evolutionary and adaption process that constantly happening in our changing environment.

During my trip to Fraser's Hill (FH) in Aug, I encountered many moths heading towards the corridor white fluorescent lights and landed on the walls, tables or on the floor.

There were many different kinds of moths of all sizes, shapes, colours and patterns - super diverse group of insects. First of all, two medium-sized brown moths.
However, the wing patterns on this moth - a male Cricula trifenestrata are quite delicate and nice.This is his female partner which has transparent spots on the forewings. Look at the glowing eyes of this moth.
Moths come in all kind of shapes - is this a T-shaped resting posture Plume moth from the family Pterophoridae ?What does it look like ? A small rat with a short tail ?
Take away the antennae and the head, this moth looks like a dry leaf ?

The body shape of this particular species of hawk moth in the family Sphingidae resembles a world war 2 propeller fighter plane on the runway ready to take off.
Another species of hawk moth (Daphnis hypothous ? ) that preferred the floor to the wall or ceiling. The size of moth species can vary a lot. The huge and spectacular Atlas Moth (Attacas sp) is bigger than our palm. In contrast, some are really small and tiny but can be brightly coloured like this species below.Some moths even have colourful-patterned abdomen or thorax. Just like butterflies, moths provide many beautiful and often startling illustrative examples of camouflage, warning colours and defensive colour patterns.A disguise or camouflage phenomenon displayed by insects to blend their body color and appearance with their natural environment in order to hide or to conceal from predators' sighting is called crypsis. Look at this cryptic moth which blends perfectly with the carpet.Some moths are endowed with brightly coloured wings and patterns which serve as warning and defensive ploys - a phenomenon described as aposematism.

Another beautiful moth with a slender body shape attracted our attention for photographing.
Some moths are very drab and plain - so colour cannot be their defense mechanism. How do they protect themselves ?
These moths are rather small but the patterns on the wings are truly amazing and beyond my imaginations.
Though the colour of the wings is in green only but the different hues or tones produce a very artistic and creative design.
The antennae of moths come in various shapes and colours. The glowing eyes and the pair of feathery antennae make this moth a popular subject for us to photograph.
Whereas this moth has a long and thin pair of antennae - not that attractive though.
Where are the antennae ? They may be hidden under their wings.

Some of us had the opportunity to capture the moment when this moth showed its abdominal opening called anus (is this the correct term ?) - what an "interesting" phenomenon.
Last but not least, I have not been able to identify most of the species here -really hope that readers of the blog can help me to do so.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! I love moths! Especially Saturniidae. Meanwhile the so-called "anus" of the moth could in fact be its pheremone glands. Even some butterflies have that and they open this gland so that males (or females) can smell the pheremones and find their way to them from many kilometers away.

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  2. what was the small colored bright one called?

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