Mysteries of the night

New York City is the most populous urban agglomeration in the US or Canada, with 20 million people, and an "urban landmass" sprawled over 4,669 square miles, the most of any city in the world, per the nice people at Wikipedia.

But for all the efforts of homo sapiens to dominate this landscape, there are many spaces where strange and delightful creatures continue to thrive. Some of these spaces are geographic — the sea, steep hillsides, or parks — and some are temporal. As humans go to bed at night, many other creatures awaken. There is a strange and wonderful world of biodiversity for those willing to hang out in a patch of woods at night.

Recently I've gone mothing three times, once with @zitserm and twice alone, and in just a few hours added almost 70 species to my life list. Many of the creatures I have photographed on these expeditions were among the first iNat observations in New York City, in Queens County, or in one case, in all of New York State.

Here are a few interesting ones. While in theory we were looking for moths, in general I found the beetles and wasps to be just as fun. So many surprises.

Beetles

Cymbiodyta bifidus, first in NYC. Having seen two of them that night, I now get to be the leading observer for all of New York state. Small trophies.
Hydrochara beetle
Contacyphon, which was smol, lke 2-3mm long.
Apenes? Rare if true.
The incredibly smol Anisotoma, almost as smol as the Contacyphon
Synchroa punctata Maybe a first iNat in Queens.
Dircaea liturata Another probable first iNat in Queens.

Flies

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th New York state observations of Teucholabis flies. The first one was carrying a mite, as noted by Neville Park on Mastodon.
Apparently a Anopheles malaria mosquito in Queens. There is another but I don't think it's an accurate observation.
A Triaenodes, a long-horned (actually long-antennaed) caddisfly, maybe the first spotting in Queens. Insanely long antennae.

Wasps

Mesochorinae, first sighting in NYC
Ophion wasps, a kind of inch-long ichneumonid wasp, which bumble around hilariously and are huge and beautiful and it's truly bizarre that they aren't spotted more often.

Moths

Nallachius americanus, one of the strangest and most beautiful moths I've ever seen
Lithacodes fasciola (Yellow-shouldered Slug Moth), which apparently I had seen before in its ridiculous larval stage.
Pubitelphusa latifasciella (White-banded Pubitelphusa Moth), though I gotta say I don't see the white band
Eudonia strigalis Striped Eudonia Moth
Chytonix palliatricula Cloaked Marvel
Macaria pustularia (Lesser Maple Spanworm Moth)
Phalaenophana pyramusalis (Dark banded owlet)
Can you believe the Apogeshna stenialis (Checkered Apogeshna Moth)
Nematocampa resistaria (Horned Spanworm Moth)
Leucomele miriamella (First within 50 miles)
Olethreutes connectum First "bunchberry leaffolder moth" in NYC
The comely Desmia funeralis
Acleris moths including this Oak Leafshredder Moth, a possible Red-edged Acleris Moth and a Blueberry Leaftier Moth

Ten of the 36 Acleris observations in NYC have been in the past three weeks, a sign that mothing is a growing hobby. And did you know that July 22-30 is NATIONAL MOTH WEEK? I am looking forward to seeing what people find in the dark!

Posted on 08 de julho de 2023, 03:52 AM by