Grapevine Epimenis (Psychomorpha epimenis)

April 16, 2006

Easter Sunday.  Beautiful spring day - no other plans - I figured I'd take a drive and see if the epimenises were out (epimeni?).

And they were, at the usual spot right on the border of Killingworth and Madison, CT.  The picture on the right is of a female.  She is laying eggs in the leaf buds of a grapevine.

These beautiful day-flying moths are often mistaken for butterflies.  That's

what I thought it was the first time I saw one about 15 years ago.  Being pretty familiar with the butterfly species one could expect to find in CT, I thought I'd come upon a vagrant of some kind.  It was no less exciting to learn that it was a moth, and one I could expect to find every spring about 10 minutes from my home.

I removed the previous entry of this moth (April 14, 2002), because I was able to get a better photo.  The one above was so intent on ovipositing, it didn't notice me hovering over it.   In fact, I was holding the tip of the branch to keep it from shaking in the wind.   This was the only shot I got, though, because they (there were about 6 of them) spent most of the time in the gravevines at the tops of the trees.  I usually find them puddling along the dirt road in that area (I presume they're the males), but this time they were all busy egg laying.