Forage Looper
Caenurgina erechtea, Floyd Bennett field, 2006-10-01
Rob Jett and I found this very well camouflaged moth at Floyd Bennett field on last Sunday’s Brooklyn Bird Club trip. If it hadn’t moved, we never would have spotted it.
I’m getting quite interested in moths. There are about 700 species of birds that regularly occur in the continental United States (plus various accidentals), and maybe twice that many butterflies. However, there are over 11,000 known species of moths in the same area; and perhaps another 1,000-4,000 species that haven’t even been identified yet! I knew there were a lot of unknown insect species in the rain forests and similarly inaccessible places; but I had no idea there were that many right here at home. Worldwide about 165,000 species of moths are recognized.
