#Scarce Merveille du Jour

[moths-daily]

Please could you show the world my favourite moth, Moma alpium, the Scarce merveille du jour? Its very special to me, and I hope others can appreciate it too.

Moth Of The Day #270

Scarce Merveille du Jour

Moma alpium

From the noctuidae family. They have a wingspan of 30-35 mm. They can be found in the Palearctic Realm.

Image sources: [1] [2]

[colorsoutofearth]

Scarce Merveille du Jour moth (Moma alpium) camouflaged against lichen -

Photo by Robert Thompson

[thethingything]

moth week: moth 6

another one we've posted before. it's a Merveille du Jour (Griposia aprilina), not to be confused with the Scarce Merveille du Jour (Moma alpium) which looks pretty similar.

the caterpillars of this species feed on oak, and the adults' patterns blend in really well with oakmoss.

[rot-ameise]

[thethingything]

I wasn't aware that there were two species until now, but now I'm intrigued by it as well. I have some photos of one I saw last year here in the UK that looks incredibly similar which was how I recognised it:

the one you saw seems to have slightly different patterning (especially the subterminal line, which is a solid zigzag on yours, and a row of dots on mine) and when I looked up the two to compare them the same differences in pattern seem to show up in most of the photos.

this is a photo of griposia aprilina from wikipedia:

and this is a photo of moma alpium:

based on the photos it looks like you're right about the one you saw being moma alpium, and I'd guess the one I saw was griposia aprilina.

there are a lot of noctuidae species that look really similar to each other, but it's interesting to see how similar the patterns on these two in particular are because of how striking they are.

I feel like maybe it could be a case of convergent evolution if they live in the same environment, and apparently both species live in deciduous woodland and feed on oak, which makes me wonder if they both just happened to evolve to blend in with oakmoss, since that has a similar kind of pale greenish colour.

back on that bugs grind y’all i definitely didn’t forget to bugpost for like a whole year

this is the only time ive seen this moth and i’d be thrilled to see it again. colours absolutely stunning on this one. green and white and black but the pattern is what’s really extraordinary. looks like a little mint chocolate chip moth. pop this one right in my mouth. that’s how humans appreciate things, right?

11/10 this is my favourite moth yet honestly i wanted a better picture but i hard stopped in the middle of a conversation to take a picture of a moth through a window into a room where several women were doing a frankly rather embarrassing team building exercise so i decided this would have to do. apologies to the woman whose legs i was unable to keep out of the photo but this moth was very important to me

[mscoyditch]

D'Artagnan.

"Nature is wonderful designer and look at these fantastic hand knitted moths made in Shetland wool by British designer Max Alexander. What talent she has !!

#1 Hand knitted "Peach blossom Moth" © Max Alexander

#2 Hand knitted "Pease blossom" moth © Max Alexander

#3 Hand knitted "Crimson Speckled Moth".© Max Alexander

4 Hand knitted "Scarce Merveille du Jour Moth" © Max Alexander

#5 Sussex Emerald moth © Max Alexander

#6 Hand knitted "Lily Moth"© Max Alexander

~~~ooo~~~

Max Alexander is a moth knitter. She uses fine shetland wool to accurately portray different species of moths and butterflies

Max studied sculpture at Camberwell College of Arts (2004-07) and soon began to use wool in her work.

Items can be purchased as cards ,prints , and framed knitted works or can be specially commissioned, she has a website and a shop on Etsy

https://www.maxsworld.co.uk/product-category/knitted-moths/moth-cards/page/2/

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/maxsworld

~~~ooo~~~

Just in case anybody has hatred of moths and thinks all moths eat wool they don't. In fact there are very few .

The two moths most commonly found in UK homes doing damage to natural fibres are the common clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella) and the case-bearing clothes moth (Tinea pellionella). It is the immature larvae, that cause the damage to natural fibres such as woollen clothing, upholstery, carpets and furs.To put things in perspective

of the 15,000 species of moths in North America only two are "clothing moths" in the family Tineidae. Ok I will now step down from my soap box .

Love D'Artagnan xxx".

[thenatureofdorset-blog]

This got the NoD ... MJLbirder: A stunning Scarce Merveille du Jour today courtesy of home delivery service by @harbourbirds cheers Paul -- https://t.co/rZZj8PCkzW http://dlvr.it/PFt7n5 .... take a look!