I think it’s a kind of Snout moth.
I’m going to take a shot at the species. Gonocausta sabinalis. It’s only in South Texas and Florida. Those long features at the front are not the moth’s antennae. Those are mouth parts for feeling, tasting, and smelling.
That kind of Geometer Moth I sent out yesterday is known as a Speckled Wave.
This one is known as a bird dropping moth.
Unless I’m overthinking it and it’s really what it looks like.
I didn’t identify the species, but I got the Longhorn Beetle part right. I’ll give myself a B+.
Today’s bug.
A Geometer Moth.
Geometer moths are the parents of inchworms, measuring their way around the world. I won’t attempt the species; I’m led to believe there are 1,400 in North America alone.
Bug guy says the cream-colored moth I identified as a webworm moth is actually a citrus gem. The other ones, the brown ones are some type of Tiger Moth. Well, a Lichen Moth is a kind of Tiger Moth, so I’m maybe kinda right. I’d give myself, and AI, maybe a D- on this effort.
I’ll try again. Here is a Longhorn Beetle.
A warm west-facing wall in a rural setting, lighted at night, with a shade canopy over it during the day. (Yes, the little church.) Moths and other critters gather under the light at night and remain at dawn protected from the sun. A veritable panoply of bug species.
I didn’t take the long shot, showing all the little dots on the wall, but I did get some close-ups.
With a little (okay, a lot of) help from AI, these appear to be lichen moths with an individual webworm moth in the middle. The caterpillars of lichen moths feed on, you guessed it, lichen. The chemicals in the digested lichen then make the caterpillars taste bad to some potential predators.
I’m going to send out a few more bug pictures from that wall, and with any luck I’ll get corrected if I’m off base with my identifications. I’m not a bug expert, and as we all know, AI can and does, make the occasional bad assumption or mistake. For now, anyway.
