First Night of Mothing 2022 - A few first of the seasons, a new form of Lacewing, a new moth and fly species, and hundreds of Snow Geese

Since the temperature got to 83° yesterday during the day here in St. Louis, I decided to try a first night of mothing. I think I've often missed early spring moths in our St. Louis area due to not mothing early enough. Though sparse attendance was the general theme of the night, there were still a number of sweet moments like seeing my first male Wedgling Moth of the season. Five Hypena scabras were present. A new form of Chrysoperla rufilabris (Red-lipped Green Lacewing) appeared -- and confounded and enchanted me. At first I thought they were a different species of Lacewing that I'd never encountered, until I discovered today that their red and yellow gorgeousness was their overwinter form. Kudos for mothing earlier this year, eh?

Leafhoppers were a joy to see and photograph - and as usual, I did not know the species name. I caught my first assassin bug of the year eating off the sheet, despite the dearth of options. Squealing with delight, I found a first of the season Twenty-spotted Lady Beetle the size of the tip of a pencil. There were a few challenging moth species, one that I thought might be Eucosmini. With the help of colleagues here on iNaturalist, one was determined to be a possible variation of Epinotia zandana, a new species for me. Besides my first of the season weevil, there were species of flies that joined the sheet looked somewhat familiar, but I felt unsure. One that I assumed was a bathroom moth fly turned out to be a new species for me, a Trickling Filter Fly (Psychoda alternata). A large fresh first of the season Brown-shaded Gray Moth definitely stood out on the mostly empty sheet.

As the temperatures dropped, I quit mothing early, but not before I heard the sound of Snow Geese migrating overhead. I continued to hear them for over an hour and upon going in for the night, they sounded closer, so I looked skyward and could see their white V formations against the night sky. Wow.

Posted on March 3, 2022 07:37 PM by wildreturn