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Gardening with a Purpose: Natives for Moths [1]

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Date: 2023-01-09

Emerald Moth photographed in Central Oregon in 2018

If you have watched one of Doug Tallamy’s video presentations on his website: https://homegrownnationalpark.org/tallamys-hub-1, you can’t miss all the striking caterpillars he features. Most of these are moth larvae. He intentionally adds native plants to his property to host moth caterpillars. Why not focus on butterfly host plants?

As Tallamy explains on his website, and in his lectures:

‘For the past four years I have been photographing the moth species that live on our property. This year I reached 1,028 species That’s right: at least 1,028 (and counting - it is up to 1199 in his latest presentation) moth species make their living on our ten-acre patch of southeastern Pennsylvania. That is 40% of all of the moth species that have been recorded in the 2.4 million acres that comprise Pennsylvania; 40% on just 1/240,000th of the land area! And because each of those moths, and the caterpillars they developed from, are essential “bird food,” 59 species of birds have been able to breed on our property…’

In fact, moths way, way outnumber butterflies. In North America there are about 12,000 species of moths, compared to 825 species of butterflies. Butterflies and moths are the two groups making up the insect order Lepidoptera. The order name means ‘scaly wing’, referring to the tiny scales producing the colors and patterns of these flying insects.

Butterflies are better known because most moths are active at night. Although some do fly during the day, and some are large and spectacular, like wild silk moths, sphinx moths and hawkmoths, moths are mainly small and dull colored.

There are other differences: moths rest with wings outspread; butterflies often land with folded wings. Moth caterpillars pupate in a webbed cocoon (for which domesticated silk moths are famous), while butterflies metamorph from caterpillar to winged adult in a hard chrysalis.

In the first year of planting natives in my yard, I hoped to see lots of butterflies visiting the flowers. But I spotted just four common species – Cabbage White , Grey Hairstreak. Woodland Skipper and Sachem skipper.

So, I thought, maybe I should look for moths too. In summer evenings I set up a bed sheet illuminated by a UV lamp with wavelengths bound to attract moths, and waited. Moths started coming, but most were really tiny little guys, hard to photograph. Over a number of nights I did get images and identify about two dozen species. Unsurprisingly, there turned out to be many more moths than butterflies in my neighborhood. Here are a couple of species I found:

Tiny Variable Reddish Pyrausta Moth on UV-lighted sheet, July 2022

Artichoke Plume Moth on UV-lighted sheet, July 2022 Who knew this was a moth!

As Doug Tallamy keeps saying, caterpillar host plants should be targeted to moths as well as butterflies.

Plant additions to my yard this year will certainly take moths into account.

I rely on two websites to find out what natives host moth species:

- The National Wildlife Foundation’s native plant finder. This site lists how many, and which, species of both butterflies and moths use each plant as a caterpillar host. https://nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/

- Calscape lists plants native to California and the West Coast. The site provides known and suspected species of butterflies and moths hosted. https://www.calscape.org/

Among my native species to add this year are:

Canada Goldenrod – 2 confirmed moth/butterfly species hosted, 32 likely

Kinnikinnick (a heath family ground cover) - 6 confirmed moth/butterfly species hosted, 47 likely

Scouler's Willow - 3 confirmed moth/butterfly species hosted,, 213 likely

I hope to find some cool caterpillars on my plants this year, or in years to come.

Let me know if you spot moths or moth caterpillars in your garden.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/9/2146290/-Gardening-with-a-Purpose-Natives-for-Moths

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