Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Rosy Maple Moth






As the title suggests, this is a rosy maple moth.  They are quite common here, and very pretty.  You wouldn't think that something this brightly colored would be known for its camouflage, but it is.  This type of moth loves to congregate in certain maple trees whose seed pods (those "helicopter" seeds which spiral down as a wing-like blade) carry the exact same rose and yellow coloring when they emerge.  If you look at this moth you can see that it is the exact size and shape of one of those maple seed pods, and in a tree covered with hundreds of thousands of them you can imagine how hard it would be to spot this thing.