Mokka mit Schlag » Bugs

Probably some sort of blow fly:

More pictures on my Picasa page.
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I skipped Moth Monday last week because, although I had a couple of good new moths, no one had ID’d them yet. A week later and they still haven’t been ID’d though, so maybe it’s time to post one here and see what folks think. This is from Mountain View Shoreline in Santa Clara County, just off the salt ponds, about 6:00 A.M.:

One thing I like about moth photos is that even when a moth is very nondescript in nature, something the eye just passes over, look closer with the camera and it’s quite stunning. There are many little brown moths that we usually ignore but they’re worth a closer look.

Moth Monday time again. This next moth is gorgeous and showy but has a really annoying habit of showing up on the shady side of buildings behind fences completely out of reach of my lens/flash combo Unless I set the ISO way too high. :-(

Smerinthus cerisyi – One-eyed Sphinx – Hodges#7822
Santiago Oaks Regional Park, 2009-04-11
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You may have noticed that most of the moths I post here range in color from gray to brown so you’d think a pure green moth would be fairly easy to identify, but it turns out there are quite a few of these. Tentatively this has been identified as Dichorda illustraria – Hodges # 7055:

Santiago Oaks, 2009-04-05
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Yes, it’s Tuesday; but I was on a plane and then pretty jet lagged yesterday. Anyway, today’s moth is one from my Salton Sea trip two weekends ago. These moths were common on every built up surface in every campground. Best guess is that this is Perizoma custodiata, Hodges# 7328.

Mecca Beach Campground, Salton Sea, 2009-03-21

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Many-spotted Angle Moth, Hodges #6395, Digrammia irrorata
William R. Mason Regional Park, 2008-03-05

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