Day Flying Moths

[Stan Gorodenski]

This weekend at my place (about 5200 ft. elevation) near Prescott,
Arizona, I surprisingly observed a lot of day flying moths around scrub
oak. They appeared to be engaged in mating activity - one would land on
a leaf and then fly to another that had just flown by. I did not have my
net with me, and so I had to use my flywatter to get one. I first
swatted one that had rested on a scrub oak leaf, and that did not work
as I had expected - it had dropped to the fras below and there was no
way I could get into it and find it. Next I tried swatting one as it
zipped by, and to my great surprise, I got one on my first try!

I am not a moth person. I have looked through the books I have on moths,
but the only thing I can see that comes close to it is Heliaca
diminutiva in Holland's moth book. It is renamed to Heliothodes
diminutivus according to the Update to Nomenclature of Holland's Moth
Book by Joel M. Johnson. I could find nothing in Covell's book, and I
could find nothing in the Wedge fascicles I have on Noctuids under
either genus or species name.

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? I was very surprised to
see this.
Stan

 
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