#Ailanthus Webworm Moth

[onenicebugperday]

@ixwantxtoxlivex89 submitted: No IDs necessary. Just some random friends I've made over the past month or two.

What an excellent group of fine friends. I love them all deeply but especially the tussock moth in the third photo! And the jumper....

[thesingingbullfrog]

Ailanthus Webworm Moth

[herpsandbirds]

Can I submit a moth for moth week...there's a hoard of ailanthus webworm moths on my patio ^_^

Hideo:

Such beautiful moths! We get a ton of them here in the fall! (in Houston).

[fleetingfutures]

My very first ailanthus webworm moth! :^0 I was so excited to see this guy hanging out on my milkweed. They have such pretty markings!

Michigan / June 2024

[isopodbrood]

ailanthus webworm moth on my mountain mint

[the-diary-of-vivienne]

[speakingofnature]

Ailanthus Webworm Moth

Deceptive concealment takes many forms...hiding in plain sight is not simply a skill of the trickster, it is also a recognition failure of the deceived.

[faguscarolinensis]

Atteva aurea on Eucomis pallidiflora / Ailanthus Webworm Moth on Giant Pineapple Lily at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[nobodyknowsthebuggiesiveseen]

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

My boss insisted I "go look at Annabelle" before a storm rolled through. He was right, and I'm glad I did!

[punkgardener]

AILANTHUS WEBWORMMMM MOTH (Atteva aurea)

(my photo of an Ailanthus Webworm Moth, Atteva aurea)

This super cool little dude here was found chilling on my milkweed! They like my sedum a lot too which is where I normally find them, these guys are a native species to the eastern US and can be found pretty much all the way through Canada to Mexico, I've never seen them before this season and at first I thought they were a beetle because I never saw their proboscis or them fly, They get their name Ailanthus from the tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima, tree of heaven is an invasive species unlike the webworm moth which is native, but when the tree of heaven was introduced and began to spread, the range for the Webworm moth did to!

This is incredibly fascinating to me as I rarely think of invasive species and native ones working together. I always have thought of invasive species as being unusable by a native species. Even when a bee drinks nectar from a Chinese privet or a bird nests in a Bradford pear, I always thought that was the limit of the use, something that just takes the place of something more beneficial, but while that still is the case for some species of plant and animal, in the case of the Ailanthus Webworm moth, it has truly used the tree of heaven to its advantage. I've never heard of or thought of a native species using an invasive one in this way, to further its own gain and spread across the US. I find it truly fascinating!

I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing of course; I despise invasive species especially ones as fast acting and destructive as the tree of heaven. I just think it's interesting to see how the tree of heaven has also facilitated the spread of a species that was already a US native.

Also I found this at the end of one website explaining why they weren't a serious pest and I thought it totally sounded like the webworm moth wrote it:

Links to where I learned this stuff:

If anyone else has seen these guys and wants to add any pictures or info, please do! Let's share all the knowledge we can!

[onenicebugperday]

@trice-the-nobling submitted: Hi! I just realized the difference between submissions and asks, sorry about the double up 😓

I saw this guy in [removed] (please remove the location) in July and was wondering what he is please?

No worries! This friend is an ailanthus webworm moth :)

[bug-blogging]

Kicking this blog off with some milkweed-fans.

Got a few different insects in the first pic, including 5 Red Milkweed Beetles (2 pairs mating), a bumblebee, and an Ailanthus Webworm Moth. There's a fly on the left (maybe an Archytas, which I got pics of later) and a little bit iridescent green that looks rather insect-like that I can't ID.

The second pic contains both a Large Milkweed Bug and a Red Milkweed Beetle, which are not closely related to each other (one being a true bug and the other a beetle), but are hanging out on their namesake snack!

[whatnext10]

The Colorful Ailanthus Webworm Moth is a Great Pollinator

The Colorful Ailanthus Webworm Moth is a Great Pollinator discusses the lifestyle of this pretty little moth. It also explains why it has extended its range and shows readers images of the adults.

Ailantus Webworm Moth The blackjack flowers that grow in my yard each year are excellent attractors for local pollinators. That’s the main reason that I let them grow. They produce a pretty white ray flower with bright yellow florets in the center, but by the time they flower they are definitely looking very weedy, so a lot of folks cut them down. Every year I find lots of butterflies, beetles,…

[onenicebugperday]

Ailanthus webworm moth :)

I like your patterns, lil man. Where you from?

fr tho, can someone tell me what this bug is? My mom found it outside this morning so we took a picture of it

[muirneach]

look at this beautiful beautiful moth i saw on the court