Subject: Re: How do you pose an underwing moth?

From: Ron Royer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 13:46:55 -0600

>On Tue, 4 Apr 1995, Terry Morse wrote:

Can anyone suggest non-injurious ways to get an underwing moth resting
during the daytime to spread its wings so I can photograph the hindwing
pattern?

There's an ecological reason the pattern is hidden.Your problem is that you
want to photograph something natural in an unnatural attitude. You just
have to wax "injurious" or take what you get, which is a pattern that can't
be photographed because in nature it remains hidden when the organism is at
rest. For the same reason, to look inside the rumen of a cow, you have to
cut a hole.

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Ronald A. Royer
Division of Science
Minot State University, Minot ND 58707
701-857-3209 (Personal Office), 3161 (Division Office)
701-839-6933 (FAX), <[email-masked]>
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From: [email-masked] ("Colin Cracknell")
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 1995 06:45:22 GMT

As I understand it, the whole point of the underwing colours is that they 
*are* visible under "natural" canditions, just not all the time. They're 
flash colouration, aren't they? They perform one or both of two 
functions, which may even work against human "predators".

1) When they're flying, the underwing colours are visible, so one is 
tracking a coloured insect. When they land the colour disappears, and so 
does the insect. Often one can't find the brown moth after tracking the 
coloured one.

2) When a resting insect is disturbed, the wings flick open and the flash 
of colour can startle a predator.

The second reason gives the answer to the original question. Just poke 
the beast with a pencil. Using this technique to photograph tiger moths 
I'd estimate the results as follows:

Nothing happens: 40%
Wings flick too slightly or quickly for a photo: 40%
Subject flies away: 10%
Success: 10%

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[email-masked] | "Specialisation is for insects" [RAH]
                           | "I specialise in insects" [ColinC]
All opinions are my own, but Darter Systems agrees with me.
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From: [email-masked] (Terry Morse)
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 12:51:43

>Ronald A. Royer

  Since I had never seen the moth in question before and had no idea whether 
or not it was a rarity, I considered injuring it for the sake of a photo 
unethical.

  If you look at field guides such as the _National Audubon Society FG to 
North American Insects_, they manage to photograph apparently live and 
unharmed underwing moths with the hind wing pattern at least partially 
exposed.  I didn't make adequately clear that I was interested in any 
"ethological" methods of stimulating the moth to spread its wings, taking 
advantage of the reason the moths have showy hind wings and normally keep them 
hidden.

--Terry
Terry Morse
[email-masked]
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Think diuturnally, act contemporaneously.
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