Subject: American Lappet Moth
Location: Mancelona, MI
June 27, 2014 8:06 pm
This lovely (sometimes) orange moth allows its hindwing to peep out like a bedskirt from beneath its forewing. Found him/her hanging around on the dining hall screen door about a week ago after a warm night here in northern lower Michigan. According to Bugguide, the American Lappet Moth (Phyllodesma americana) has a wingspan of 29 to 49 mm.
Signature: Helen

American Lappet Moth

Hi Helen,
Thanks so much for doing all the research on this American Lappet Moth and for providing such a high quality image for posting to our site.  BugGuide also states that the scientific name, Phyllodesma americana:  “refers to the leaf-mimicing shape of the wings, and perhaps the pale bands on the forewing and hindwing.” 

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Subject: Pig moth??
Location: South Africa
April 17, 2014 6:38 am
Dear bugman
Please can you identify this moth? We are currently in fall in SA.
Thank you
Signature: minette

“Pig Moth” from South Africa is Lappet Moth

Dear Minette,
We don’t know what species of moth you have submitted and time will not permit our ability to research its identity at this time, but we are content dubbing it a “Pig Moth” and taking the time to format your images and request to post live.  We will enlist our readership to research this fascinating looking moth until completing our obligations allows us to return to the office to resume research.

“Pig Moth” from South Africa is Lappet Moth

Update:  April 19, 2014
We are relatively certain this “Pig Moth” is in the superfamily Noctuiodae, but we are still trying to establish its identity.

Update:  Comment
I took the original photos of the “pig moth” in Masvingo Zimbabwe. It has now ben identified as being Lasiocampidae: stoermeriana sp. by Johan Heyns and Roy Goff from the South African Butterflies Bugs Bees and other small animals on Facebook. A very pretty, unusual looking little moth 25 mm long.

Ed. Note:  See African Moths for an image of a living specimen from the genus and this other example from African Moths.  Armed with a family, we actually think it looks more like this Streblote aculeata that is pictured on ISpot, though that might be a misidentification.

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Subject: moth identification
Location: new milford,pa 18834 northeastern pennsylvania
February 23, 2014 6:34 pm
i recently took a close up photo of this white and black hairy moth on my tent at a campground in new milford pennsylvania.my site was in a somewhat heavily wooded location within the campgrounds .it was probably september or october,but im thinking it was most likely september.
i’ve been camping and hiking in this region but ive never seen presumably a moth like this ever.ive tried researching it online but the closest thing i can see that resembles this moth is a prominent moth.but there are many prominent moths that do not have pictures of them.
hoping that with these photos i took of the moth in question can be identified.
the moth in the photos are the same single moth which was about the size of a quarter.
Signature: chris leitch

Tolype

Hi Chris,
Your moth is actually a Lappet Moth in the genus Tolype, but we are not certain of the species.  You can read more about the genus Tolype on BugGuide where it is noted that the adults flight time “varies according to species; adults fly from April to December in the south; mostly August and September in the north.”

Thank You Daniel for that quick response.much appreciated.are you by any chance aware of any online identification sites where i could perhaps do future moth identifications by sorting according to color and other characteristics?it would make things so much easier.
thank you,
chris leitch

Hi again Chris,
We like BugGuide and the Moth Photographers Group for North American species.

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Subject: I love this website.
Location: Ashland, Oregon
February 17, 2014 7:53 am
Hello again, Daniel! I hope this letter finds you well. 🙂 I was just going through some old photos from last summer in Oregon and wanted to share them with you (a wooly moth, ants on a peony flower, and a yellow jacket in my cabin. ) I think I have the last two photos identified correctly, but just wanted to include them because I like the photos. The first one, however, I’m not really sure about. I love this little guy though, in my mind he looks like a sweet little sheep or maybe a strange new Star Wars character.
Signature: Rachel

Forest Tent Caterpillar Moth

Hi again Rachel,
We believe we have correctly identified your yellow moth as a Forest Tent Caterpillar Moth, Malacosoma disstria, and it took far less time than we anticipated.  The first matching photo we found was on the Wanderin Weeta blog, but alas, the moth is not identified.  We then turned to BugGuide and guessed correctly with the Lappet Moth and Tent Caterpillar family Lasiocampidae.  We were searching for an image shot at the same angle as yours, and this female Forest Tent Caterpillar Moth on BugGuide looks like a good match, except for the antennae, but male moths have more developed antennae so they can locate the female through her pheromones.  This image of a male Forest Tent Caterpillar Moth on BugGuide has antennae like your individual.  According to BugGuide:  “larvae feed on leaves of alder, basswood, birch, cherry, oak, poplar, willow.”  

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Subject: Gastropacha Quercifolia moth from Italy + issue with the website
Location: Mediterranean
September 9, 2013 8:27 am
Hi bugman,
We found this moth in an island in the Mediterranean.
I did some digging online and I think this may be in the Lasiocampidae family, Gastropachinae (or Tribe Gastropachini) sub-family, Quercifolia or Populifolia genera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastropacha_quercifolia — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastropacha_populifolia).
By the way, there seems to be an issue with the website. On Chrome the last posting is of September 1st. On Internet Explorer the webiste is all weird and messed-up. On Firefox everything seems fine.
Thanks!
Ciao
Signature: Saverio

Poplar Lappet Moth

Dear Saverio,
Thanks for submitting your photo of this Lappet Moth in the genus Gastropacha.  It really does look like a dried leaf.  We contacted our webmaster and this is his suggestion for your website issue:  “Can you ask him to refresh his page and check again? I have cleared the caches and I hope that fixed it. It looks fine to me, but I can only see it on my iPad at the moment.” 

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