March 20, 2012

Acleris cervinana

First night of spring...

This little tortricid stood out amongst the drab carpet of phigalias at the light last night. There's not much color in the moths out this early in the season - mostly drab grays, which echo the landscape of this typically rainy, transitional time of year. This allows those with somewhat distinctive patterns to stand out in the crowd. As tiny as this little moth is, those umber-bordered semi-circles of white on the costas jumped right out at me.

Incidentally, "cervi" is Latin for "deer". I wonder if that's a reference to the brown and white coloring this moth shares with said animal.