Creatures of the Night in September!

When we realized that weather conditions were favourable. (reasonable temperatures, low wind, and getting darker earlier in the evening) we set up for another backyard moth night. Moths were not the only things attracted to the light. One of our first visitors was this beautiful Eight-lined Leafhopper! I have never seen this species before! It was the start of some exciting night-time finds, many of which were firsts for the year!

Dingy Cutworm Moth seems like an odd choice of name for such a beautiful moth! This one was very active and it took quite a while before it settled down long enough to take a picture.

The Bristly Cutworm Moth also had some nice markings.

Isabella Tiger Moth

Juniper Geometer Moth

Pale Beauty

The Locust Underwing was another moth that took time to settle down. We got brief glimpses of the striped underwing as it flittered around.

It was attracted more to the light than the white sheet.

The Locust Underwing spent 30 seconds on my face and when we were done for the night, it tried to hitch a ride into the house on Deryl's shirt.

I have heard people say bright lights at night can cause some insects to appear "drunk". That was definitely the case for this Northern Dog-day Cicada which flipped and flopped for several minutes before finally resting on its back on the grass.