Migrant Moths...Mexico...ID?

Robert Russell migrants at hotmail.com
Tue Oct 27 09:34:03 EST 1998


Bob et al:

It's a longshot, but I wonder if there's a possibility that these were 
the day-flying, butterfly-mimicking moth Urania leilus?  I would 
characterize it as medium-sized rather than large, and it has more green 
than iridescent turquoise -- but it has long tails and is highly 
migratory or dispersive.  Although the green is spectacular in the hand, 
it is not necessarily evident in flight.  I'm not sure that there are 
many migratory day-flying moths (though I'm not a moth expert by any 
means).  Take a look: 

http://www.insects.co.uk/pages/butterfly/le.htm

(Note that it seems to have been misidentified as a butterfly at this 
site.)

My team of migration observers in the Gulf of Mexico has seen a few of 
these this fall.  They arrived with a pulse of odd birds and other 
vagrant leps and dragons that strongly suggested downwind migration from 
the West Indies.

By the way, does anyone know anything about the usual geographic range 
or ecology of Urania leilus?  All that I've been able to learn from the 
web is that it usually inhabits tropical forests and is common in the 
Amazonian region.  Any leads on references would be much appreciated.

Best,

Bob Russell                         migrants at hotmail.com
LSU Museum of Natural Science       http://transgulf.org

current address:
South Pelto 10
northern Gulf of Mexico


----Original Message Follows----
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 22:09:53 -0500
To: LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu
From: Bob Barber <bob at vertigo.hsrl.rutgers.edu>
Subject: Migrant Moths...Mexico...ID?
Reply-To: bob at vertigo.hsrl.rutgers.edu

A friend was in Veracruz, Mexico from 7-14 October.  She attempted to 
get
me some dragonfly migration data, but had many distractions with all of 
the
migrating raptors and the moth migration she describes below.

"The entire time there were 1,000's of large dark moths (that looked 
like a
black Luna with irridescent torquois markings) migrating too all day 
long".

"On 10/8 I got distracted with the large black moths that were migrating
and 11:35 a.m. counted 110/minute in 1 field of view as I looked out
over the Gulf of Mexico at La Mancha Biological Station".

Could anyone out there speculate what species she observed from this
description?


================================================
Bob Barber <bob at vertigo.hsrl.rutgers.edu>
Rutgers University - Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory -Histology/Pathology
New Jersey  USA
Lat. 39 19.574N   Long. 074 58.113W





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