Essential Guide to Midwest True Bugs by Angella Moorehouse

This just arrived today, and I know it will be so very useful as I venture further into the world of insects. Flower Bugs: A Field Guide to Flower-Associated True Bugs of the Midwest by Angella Moorehouse (2023) is published by Pollination Press LLC, Minnetonka, MN. The Pollination Press web address is www.pollinationpress.com.

This book has 360 pages, lavishly illustrated with beautiful full-color photographs of 160 species of terrestrial true bugs from 25 families and 52 genera. The area covered includes the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan in the US and Southern Ontario in Canada.

The book includes taxonomic charts that will guide you to family and then to genus, detailed illustrations of bug morphology, their ecology, and a glossary of terms to help you learn and identify true bugs.

Species descriptions are not overly technical, thus making this book more accessible to non-specialists with some background in insect identification. Maps show the range of each species. There are notes on key identifying features, life history, ecology, feeding, and habitat. Descriptions of herbivorous species include lists of plants they consume. Carnivorous species are similarly treated. Not all species receive the same description treatments. Some are represented with photographs.

There seems to be a problem with the index, where some entries do not match the page numbers in the book. Not sure why.

I am loving this book already and will put it to good use identifying the many bug species I have photographed. My first project will be to go through the unidentified species in my files and to re-check previous identifications. After that, I’ll spend many an evening just browsing and waiting for spring and the bugs to return.

Discovering the Red-streaked Mompha, a beautiful tiny moth

*Mompha eloisella* was probably attracted to the many *Oenothera biennis* plants nearby.

This is Mompha eloisella (Red-streaked Mompha), a tiny moth with beautiful satiny white wings speckled with symmetrically placed dark brown spots on the head, thorax, and wings, and red diagonal lines on the wing tips. The patterning of the wing tips resembles a face, but who or what will notice something that small and possibly be deterred by it? Or maybe that’s what the markings are for at all.

Mompha eloisella is in the family Momphidae, which worldwide contains at least 115 species. In North America, there are 45 species just in the genus Mompha and probably many more yet to be discovered and described. All are tiny and have unique patterns, often colorful, on their wings. The larvae of most Mompha species feed on plants in the Onagraceae (evening primrose family) as stem, flower, or fruit borers or as leaf miners. Mompha eloisella larvae are stem borers in evening primrose (Oenothera spp.). This one may have been attracted to the small stand of Oenothera biennis growing in my garden.

Mompha eloisella is widespread in the US, but available range maps show it as not present in Minnesota. Now we know it does occur in Minnesota, with this first sighting more than 120 miles north of a previous sighting in Wisconsin.

This isn’t the first Mompha moth I’ve seen here. There are four other species, all very tiny and beautifully patterned. The small size of these moths makes them easy to miss and difficult to photograph, but with a little effort and patience, they can be found and sometimes photographed clearly. Of course, not all of my Mompha photos are clear, but clear enough. They seem skittish, which also makes photographing them a challenge.

To attract more Mompha moths, I have planted Oenothera biennis, Epilobium angustifolium (fireweed), and let the weedy annual Epilobium coloratum (willow-herb) have a place in my flower garden. Not only are these plants food for Mompha moth larvae, but their flowers, sweet with nectar, are food sources for bees, small and large, and even hummingbirds. After blooming, the plants continue to benefit wildlife. A few days ago, I saw an eastern goldfinch in my flower garden feeding on the small seeds of evening primrose.

References and sources:

Genus Mompha https://bugguide.net/node/view/41654

Species Mompha eloisella – Red-streaked Mompha – Hodges#1443 https://bugguide.net/node/view/67246

Mompha eloisella (Clemens, 1860) http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=1443

A more technical description of this Mompha species, and several others, can be found at the Moths of North Carolina website.

Coming attractions

I’m working on a few posts related to fungi and insects. One should be ready next weekend and will feature an unusual beetle that eats bracket fungi and sprays poison on its enemies. And a beautiful beetle, too, will be discussed. The fungi posts will be about some important species found across the northern boreal forests. There are still literature searches going on that lead me down many wandering paths, as well as coalescing all of this information into writing before these are ready to post.

Last Moths of the Year?

Possibly. Temperatures at night have gone below freezing four times since mid-September which has put an end to the songs of crickets and grasshoppers. Bees and butterflies are gone, either killed by the cold weather or hibernating. But in the last six days, I’ve seen a moth, Operophtera bruceata (Bruce Spanworm), flying in the woods. Operophtera bruceata is a brownish moth with faint markings and is in the Geometridae. On Thursday and Friday, I turned on my porch light and attracted about 25 moths each night. That’s the largest number of Operophtera bruceata I’ve ever seen at one time so this must be a boom year for them. Saturday and Sunday nights saw fewer moths and on Monday there were none.

Operophtera bruceata spends only a few weeks of its life as a moth. From late fall to May it is an egg hidden in cracks and crevices in tree bark waiting out the winter. In May and June, the larvae hatch and begin feeding. The larvae feed on a variety of common tree species but prefer aspen, sugar maple, beech, and willow. Pupation lasts until October.

Operophtera bruceata exhibits sexual dimorphism with winged males and wingless females. Apparently, this strategy works well as the moth is widespread in North America.

***Operophtera bruceata*** **showing variation in wing patterns.**

Other moths are also appearing at the lights. One is Lithophane grotei (Grote’s Pinion) which has only recently eclosed. It will not mate until next spring. Instead, Lithophane grotei will find shelter under bark or woody debris to hibernate and wait out the winter. A different life strategy from that of Operophtera bruceata. Its larvae feed on maple, birch, cherry, and apple leaves. Lithophane grotei is widespread in the northeastern US and Ontario and Quebec in Canada.

A third species at the lights was Sunira bicolorago (Bicolored Sallow). This species is common over most of the US and southern Canada east of the Mississippi River in moist forests. The larvae of Sunira bicolorago are generalist feeders of many herbaceous and woody plants and not just willows as its common name might suggest.

The fourth, and perhaps the final moth of the year, I saw was Xanthia tatago (Pink-barred Sallow). Like Sunira bicolorago, it occurs in moist forests where willows and cottonwoods grow as it is a food specialist and feeds exclusively on plants in the willow family (Salicaceae). Early larval stages feed on the catkins of willow (I can’t find any information about feeding on cottonwood catkins) and later on the leaves.

Weather forecasts over the next two weeks show decreasing day and night temperatures with highs rarely reaching the 50s and lows down in the 20s. Not unexpected weather for this time of the year. On sunny days some tiny moths or caterpillars might be out but evening mothing is probably over until March next year at the earliest. But that’s not set in stone as on December 15 last year there was this sighting of an Acleris sp. (possibly Acleris busckana). In the meantime, until temperatures are consistently at or below freezing, there will be other insects, spiders, and other small arthropods out and about waiting, I hope, to be photographed.