Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Micromoth

Look at the lovely pattern and color of this stunning little moth! Exquisite. It's times like this that make me so overjoyed to have a macro lens--I could barely see this little guy!!! Now we can all appreciate its beauty! :)

I had a few images showing this butterfly's open wings that were a little more crisp, but this one shows both the butterfly and one of the tiny Aetole Moths I found on the flowers right next to it. I wanted to show the scale, and just so you know, the Acmon Blue was about the size of a dime, or about 3/4" in diameter.

What you see sticking up there are this tiny moth's hind legs! They raise the legs up upon landing and is normal for these species. This little guy was a little larger than a grain of rice!! It walked around flashing its beautiful, iridescent wings, and I think it was probably meant to attract mates. Studying other flowers, I saw many of these tiny moths! Isn't it amazing and beautiful?! :) I learned that this is a kind of "micromoth" in the Heliodinidae group, known as "Sun moths". Micromoths aren't an official classification but are a grouping of the many extremely small moths around the world. They share many of the same characteristics, and also often behave differently than "normal" moths. For instance, many species are diurnal (active during the day). If you would like to know more about these fascinating, beautiful moths, Wiki has a page here: Wikipedia: Microlepidoptera