moths

[bill and Dale]

North Guilford------------------Of the zillions of moths at my porch
light I finally captured the four gaudiest I could find, brought them in
the house, stuck them in the fridge until they chilled out so I could
spread their wings so I could use my Covell guide to ID them. They were:

Giant Leopard Moth- Epcantheria scribonia- awesome pop-art pattern.
False Crocus Geometer- Xanthotype urticaria- nice straw yellow and pale
lavender pattern
Banded Tiger moth-Apantesis vittata- the easiest ID once you see the
hindwings.
Beautiful Wood nymph-Eudryas grata- one of the bird turd moths. But a
beautiful turd.
         Maybe I'll try four more tonight. I'm handicapped in my
identification skills by unfamiliararity with the hindwings. They look
so radically different perched on my porch than they do spread in a
field guide with hindwings exposed.  I would be so pleased (take note
all potential moth field guide authors) if I had a reference that showed
photos of moths the way they look in life. The Audubon guide to insects
and spiders does this with about 15 moths and it works great. I could
really get into this if there was such a guide. Anybody know of that
type of field guide to moths??
                                               Bill Y