Turned in the Night for Day
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13×19 including 1” white border. Ink print on fine art paper, unmated, unframed
Species: Police-car moth (Gnophaela vermiculata), Orange sneezeweed (Hymenoxys hoopesii)
Public Land: Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Area, Carson National Forest, New Mexico
Christina photographed this pair of police-car moth hiking the Columbine Canyon Trail in northern New Mexico. They are found throughout the Rocky Mountains in wet forest meadows at middle to high elevations, which is exactly where she found them. Attracted by their striking black and white colors contrasting nicely against the orange of sneezeweed, she noticed the moths didn’t seem to mind her proximity as she approached for close up photos. Wielding their specialized defenses, these moths have little to fear from birds or bats or photographers.
Police-car moths are part of the tiger moth family, day flying moths that have bright colors in both caterpillars and adults, usually with striking patterns. Their ability to fly during the day and to assemble in large numbers while nectaring comes from chemical defenses that they either synthesize or take from their host plants and sequester in specific tissues. This species is a foodplant specialist feeding on mountain bluebells (Mertensia spp.) Caterpillars add contrasting black barbs that penetrate, dig in, and deliver stinging toxins. Both caterpillars and adults have combinations of brilliant black, white, blue, yellow, orange and red--aposematic color patterns warning predators of toxic defenses.
In addition, this group of moths is distinctive for its evolution of tymbal organs, or structures on the thorax that make ultrasonic clicks when the structures are flexed. The clicks are emitted in response to bat sonar, to warn bats of chemical defenses and in some cases, to jam the bat's radar.
Police car moth caterpillars synthesize their own chemicals and also sequester from their host plants in the genus Mertensia. They utilize both tall and dwarf bluebells, consuming leaves. Police car moths use ultrasonic clicks to deter bats but do not employ either ultrasound into courtship displays as some other species of tiger moths do.
Plus shipping fee.
13×19 including 1” white border. Ink print on fine art paper, unmated, unframed
Species: Police-car moth (Gnophaela vermiculata), Orange sneezeweed (Hymenoxys hoopesii)
Public Land: Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Area, Carson National Forest, New Mexico
Christina photographed this pair of police-car moth hiking the Columbine Canyon Trail in northern New Mexico. They are found throughout the Rocky Mountains in wet forest meadows at middle to high elevations, which is exactly where she found them. Attracted by their striking black and white colors contrasting nicely against the orange of sneezeweed, she noticed the moths didn’t seem to mind her proximity as she approached for close up photos. Wielding their specialized defenses, these moths have little to fear from birds or bats or photographers.
Police-car moths are part of the tiger moth family, day flying moths that have bright colors in both caterpillars and adults, usually with striking patterns. Their ability to fly during the day and to assemble in large numbers while nectaring comes from chemical defenses that they either synthesize or take from their host plants and sequester in specific tissues. This species is a foodplant specialist feeding on mountain bluebells (Mertensia spp.) Caterpillars add contrasting black barbs that penetrate, dig in, and deliver stinging toxins. Both caterpillars and adults have combinations of brilliant black, white, blue, yellow, orange and red--aposematic color patterns warning predators of toxic defenses.
In addition, this group of moths is distinctive for its evolution of tymbal organs, or structures on the thorax that make ultrasonic clicks when the structures are flexed. The clicks are emitted in response to bat sonar, to warn bats of chemical defenses and in some cases, to jam the bat's radar.
Police car moth caterpillars synthesize their own chemicals and also sequester from their host plants in the genus Mertensia. They utilize both tall and dwarf bluebells, consuming leaves. Police car moths use ultrasonic clicks to deter bats but do not employ either ultrasound into courtship displays as some other species of tiger moths do.
Plus shipping fee.
13×19 including 1” white border. Ink print on fine art paper, unmated, unframed
Species: Police-car moth (Gnophaela vermiculata), Orange sneezeweed (Hymenoxys hoopesii)
Public Land: Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Area, Carson National Forest, New Mexico
Christina photographed this pair of police-car moth hiking the Columbine Canyon Trail in northern New Mexico. They are found throughout the Rocky Mountains in wet forest meadows at middle to high elevations, which is exactly where she found them. Attracted by their striking black and white colors contrasting nicely against the orange of sneezeweed, she noticed the moths didn’t seem to mind her proximity as she approached for close up photos. Wielding their specialized defenses, these moths have little to fear from birds or bats or photographers.
Police-car moths are part of the tiger moth family, day flying moths that have bright colors in both caterpillars and adults, usually with striking patterns. Their ability to fly during the day and to assemble in large numbers while nectaring comes from chemical defenses that they either synthesize or take from their host plants and sequester in specific tissues. This species is a foodplant specialist feeding on mountain bluebells (Mertensia spp.) Caterpillars add contrasting black barbs that penetrate, dig in, and deliver stinging toxins. Both caterpillars and adults have combinations of brilliant black, white, blue, yellow, orange and red--aposematic color patterns warning predators of toxic defenses.
In addition, this group of moths is distinctive for its evolution of tymbal organs, or structures on the thorax that make ultrasonic clicks when the structures are flexed. The clicks are emitted in response to bat sonar, to warn bats of chemical defenses and in some cases, to jam the bat's radar.
Police car moth caterpillars synthesize their own chemicals and also sequester from their host plants in the genus Mertensia. They utilize both tall and dwarf bluebells, consuming leaves. Police car moths use ultrasonic clicks to deter bats but do not employ either ultrasound into courtship displays as some other species of tiger moths do.