northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's someone I forgot to mention when talking about the insects of milkweeds and dogbanes ; it's the Delicate Cycnia Moth (aka Dogbane Tiger Moth). It appears that "cycnia" is pronounced like SICK-knee-uh. If that's something you're not going to remember, there's always the Dogbane Tiger Moth name available to you. Though I don't see these guys a lot in the day, I'll sometimes see them. In flight you might be fooled into thinking they're the far more common Cabbage White butterfly, but if they sit still for you, you should be able to tell the difference. The Delicate Cycnia lacks the little black smudge marks on the wings, and has a slightly yellowish color on the wing edges. As one of their names suggests, as caterpillars these moths eat dogbanes and sometimes milkweeds. This makes them poisonous, or at least foul-tasting. This provides them protection from bats, who would normally love to snack on a moth. Their relationship with bats has ...