2020 October 27

 

Jochen Möhr’s moths and caddisflies from Metchosin this morning:

2 Epirrita autumnata 

2 Halesochila taylori

and a beautifully marked moth, identified by Libby Avis as Mythimna unipuncta.

 

It is indeed a beautifully marked moth, with English names White-speck Moth or American Waiscot, but whose caterpillar in North America is the notorious armyworm.  Libby writes from Port Alberni:  There was a large caterpillar outbreak in the Alberni Valley in 2017. Some farmers were badly affected, but the population appears to have died down considerably since then. We’ve seen four adults in the last two weeks and only three others earlier in the summer.

 

See photograph of caterpillar and account of a massive oujtbreak in Courtenay in the 2017 September 10 posting of Invertebrate Alert.   (Currently page 210)

 

 

Mythimna unipuncta (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Moehr