RHH's photos with the keyword: moth

Taken along the Cathedral Lake trail in the Colorado Rockies.

While photographing Bog Orchids (Tall Northern Green Bog Orchid in this case) in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia, I stopped to photograph this moth, never realizing until I arrived home that the moth was in the clutches of a Crab Spider which must have been hiding out on the orchid.

The name of this moth is a reference to its black and white coloring. This example was photographed in eastern Washington along the Kettle Crest trail in Colville National Forest. These moths were everywhere and these were the plants they seemed to favor, which I believe to be the Varied-leaf Phacelia.

These tiny moths were photographed on Saxifrage plants in Derby Canyon in eastern Washington. They are not native but are from Eurasia and were first found in British Columbia and Washington in the early 1980's and have now spread to northern Oregon as well. Their larva are a serious threat to Apple and Crab Apple trees and can completely defoliate the trees.

Love the name of this moth, a reference to its black and white coloring. This example was photographed in eastern Washington along the Kettle Crest trail in Colville National Forest. These moths were everywhere and these were the plants they seemed to favor, which I believe to be the Varied-leaf Phacelia.

I know that I am getting tired of these pictures and I'm sure everyone else is too, but I promise this will be the last. It was taken on one of our recent visits to the floating bog on Summer Lake. On this White Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia leucophylla) we found this crab spider which had captured and was dining on a moth or skipper much larger than itself. When we tried to photograph it it retreated around the edge of the pitcher plant with its prey and finally dropped the insect into the pitcher. Whether it was finished eating or just tired of trying to avoid us we could not tell, but what a double jeopardy! Insects have to beware both the deadly beauty of the Pitcher Plants and the spiders so often lurking inside or nearby. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/little-bog-... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-bog-...

This was photographed growing wild at Catherine Creek in the Columbia River gorge, but is not a native plant. Its botanical name is Verbascum blattaria, and it is found at low elevations usually in disturbed areas. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.ca/2012/07/derby-canyon...