Creatures of the Night!

We recently hung a white sheet on the clothesline in the evening and shone a bright light to entice moth species to our backyard. We "pasted" a fermented concoction of bananas, strawberries, sugar and a little wine on a couple of trees to attract the moths. We didn't get much response until after the Fireflies stopped flying. (Check out your backyard starting around 9:00 tonight if you haven't seen fireflies this year.) By 10:30 we were finding some incredible, but quite small moths. Thanks to a friend for assisting with the identification! I have a big learning curve to name the moths. In Ontario, there are 167 known Butterflies. However, Moth species number around 5,000!

Lesser Grapevine Looper (wing span 28-33 mm)

Unfortunately we also attracted a male Gypsy Moth.

(Total Length 26 mm)

Smoky Idia (Total Length 10-14 mm)

Spotted Peppergrass Moth (Total Length 8-9 mm)

Large Lace Border (Wing Span 20-31 mm)

Not all moths are nocturnal. This Clearwing Borer was in my garden this afternoon. 

(between 10-20 mm depending upon the species.