Soybean Looper Moth

Chrysodeixis (formerly Pseudoplusia) includens

September 27, 2002

I like the loopers (subfamily plusiinae).  They

remind me of dry docked battleships.  Many

have silvery white markings on the wings and a tuft of scales extending straight up from the upper thorax.  I once inquired as to what purpose these raised scales served and it was suggested that it breaks up the "mothy" outline of the insect.  I always suspected it had something to do with pheromone capture or distribution.  Can anyone offer a better explanation?  Please email me.

While there is no soy growing by me, there's tons of goldenrod, which the larvae also feed upon.

Here are two photos taken September 25, 2010 (wow, I've been doing this a while!).  When the light hits them right, their scales reflect a brassy sheen.  This is actual brass, by the way - how they manage to manufacture this alloy remains a mystery.  

In the early eighteenth century, these moths were collected and melted down for candlestick holders and doorknobs.  Since it takes, like, two thousand moths to make one doorknob, though, the art of "moth smelting" was short lived.