Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Gnophaela vermiculata

Earlier today, just about everything was going wrong on Flickr (for me, at least), including difficulty in even opening the website. Don't know if anyone else has had problems today. Something tells me that my photos may not be showing up today? Definitely something wrong! Ah, just checked the Help Forum and I see I'm not the only one. This was the first Police Car Moth that I've seen this year, so I was happy to see this one. Some years, there seem to be a lot more of them. "This is a fairly large moth with a wingspan of up to 50 mm. The wings are jet black with large white patches between the black scaled veins. As well there are two orange patches of hairs on either side of the thorax, right behind the head. It is this colour combination, that of an old style police car, that gives it its name. Larvae are hairy and black with yellow and blue markings." From the Royal Alberta Museum website. royalalbertamuseum.ca/research/lifeSciences/invertebrateZ... Today, I'm again leaving my Waterton images and instead adding three more photos taken five days ago (23 July 2015), closer to home. Five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from Calgary). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I went - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse were the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, everywhere treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour. Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015). Our purpose, as always, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day. This summer, with so many botanizing outings like this, plus two 3-day trips to Waterton Lakes National Park, I am so far behind with the photos that I need to edit and e-mail!

A couple of weeks ago, on 10 August 2014, I slept right through an hour of very loud music and then woke up nearly five hours later (around 11:30 a.m.)! As a result, I missed a trip with friends to a great place SW of the city, Brown-Lowery Provincial Park - one that I don't like going to on my own. Knowing that there would be other people in the area, I decided to still go, but not go very far into the forest on my own. Hopefully, the others would scare any Bears and Cougars out of the forest and not in my direction! To say that I could kick myself is to put it mildly! So much for hoping that there would be no bears. When I arrived at the not particularly well-known forest, I signed the "guest book" as I often do. Before I turned the page to sign on a nice fresh page, I happened to read one of the last comments that someone had written - a Black Bear had been seen that day, on the very trail I wanted to go on! I put the can of Bear Spray into my fanny-pack (can't use a backpack because of the rotator cuff inflammation in both my shoulders), but after a few steps, knew my fanny pack felt just too heavy. Put the can back in the car and instead, attached my bear bell to my camera strap and clutched a small air-horn in one hand. I only spent about an hour in the forest, but did not enjoy a single step of it, lol! I was determined to at least go a very tiny way in, having driven all the way there. Very thankfully, there was no sign of the bear - but also no sign of any mushrooms other than one tiny cluster of Pholiotas growing at the base of a tree stump. Absolutely nothing, despite recent rain. Maybe it's still too early, especially after such a late spring? August is supposedly the peak of the fungi season here. Found the beautiful Police Car Moth in my photo above, when I walked around the edge of the parking lot after my short walk. Saw very little on the drive home - a couple of Hawks (one on a hay bale), a few Ravens and a few Crows, one Cedar Waxwing, and several very distant ducks. No sign of any Red-winged or Yellow-headed Blackbirds and no Wilson's Snipe. "The Police Car Moth is a fairly large moth with a wingspan of up to 50 mm. The wings are jet black with large white patches between the black scaled veins. As well, there are two orange patches of hairs on either side of the thorax, right behind the head. It is this colour combination, that of an old style police car, that gives it its name. Larvae are hairy and black with yellow and blue markings. The Police Car Moth is found throughout the province in or near forested areas. Adults fly throughout July and early August." From Royal Alberta Museum. www.royalalbertamuseum.ca .

Photographed on a great day of botanizing (plus a bit of canoeing!) at the Medicine River Wildlife Centre, Spruce View, Alberta (NW of Calgary). Funny how it works sometimes - the best of a bunch of photos of this moth, and it happens to be on a most unphotogenic Fleabane flower, ha. There seem to have been a lot of these Police Car Moths this year. "This is a fairly large moth with a wingspan of up to 50 mm. The wings are jet black with large white patches between the black scaled veins. As well, there are two orange patches of hairs on either side of the thorax, right behind the head. It is this colour combination, that of an old style police car, that gives it its name. Larvae are hairy and black with yellow and blue markings. The Police Car Moth is found throughout the province in or near forested areas. Adults fly throughout July and early August." From www.royalalbertamuseum.ca "A common western North American species found from southern British Columbia across to western Manitoba and south to northern New Mexico. Adults are diurnal and are found nectaring on flowers. There are four other species in this genus, however this is the only one that occurs in Alberta. Wingspan is 46 - 50 mm; various habitats, but not on the prairies; caterpillar's diet is Lungwort." www.insectsofalberta.com/policecarmoth.htm

Another shot of a Police Car Moth, taken on a small boardwalk near the parking lot at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, on 4 August 2012. "This is a fairly large moth with a wingspan of up to 50 mm. The wings are jet black with large white patches between the black scaled veins. As well, there are two orange patches of hairs on either side of the thorax, right behind the head. It is this colour combination, that of an old style police car, that gives it its name. Larvae are hairy and black with yellow and blue markings. The Police Car Moth is found throughout the province in or near forested areas. Adults fly throughout July and early August." From www.royalalbertamuseum.ca .

Not the best photo of a Police Car Moth, but I wanted it as a record. Seen in Weaselhead on 18 July 2012. "This is a fairly large moth with a wingspan of up to 50 mm. The wings are jet black with large white patches between the black scaled veins. As well, there are two orange patches of hairs on either side of the thorax, right behind the head. It is this colour combination, that of an old style police car, that gives it its name. Larvae are hairy and black with yellow and blue markings. The Police Car Moth is found throughout the province in or near forested areas. Adults fly throughout July and early August." From www.royalalbertamuseum.ca .

Taken on August 20th in the forest at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. A very grainy image - didn't realize how bad it was until I just uploaded to Flickr, ha. I still remember how thrilled I was when I saw my very first Police Car Moth - and since then have seen so many. I have just been trying to find out on the Internet why some of these Moths appear to be brown and white, not black and white. Male/female? Age? Light? "This is a fairly large moth with a wingspan of up to 50 mm. The wings are jet black with large white patches between the black scaled veins. As well, there are two orange patches of hairs on either side of the thorax, right behind the head. It is this colour combination, that of an old style police car, that gives it its name. Larvae are hairy and black with yellow and blue markings. The Police Car Moth is found throughout the province in or near forested areas. Adults fly throughout July and early August." From www.royalalbertamuseum.ca . Posting really early this morning, as I have a day of botanizing. I was glued to my TV set till the early hours of the morning, watching the progress of Hurricane Irene and hoping against hope that it will somehow veer off to the right. My thoughts are with all those who have been, and will be, affected by this powerful act of nature.

Yesterday afternoon, I drove westwards, a huge smile on my face as I headed towards the foothills and very eastern edge of the mountains. My first stop was at Maclean Pond, hoping to find various mushrooms. I did find a couple of tiny ones (same species), but I did better at finding and photographing a few wildflowers and this beautiful Police Car Moth. "This is a fairly large moth with a wingspan of up to 50 mm. The wings are jet black with large white patches between the black scaled veins. As well, there are two orange patches of hairs on either side of the thorax, right behind the head. It is this colour combination, that of an old style police car, that gives it its name. Larvae are hairy and black with yellow and blue markings. The Police Car Moth is found throughout the province in or near forested areas. Adults fly throughout July and early August." From www.royalalbertamuseum.ca .

I felt so lucky to see another Police Car Moth when we spent all Thursday botanizing the Bentz Lake Natural Area (north of Calgary and west of Sundre). Perhaps unfortunate that its right wing tip is damaged, but it is still beautiful. It was resting on a branch and then friend David put his finger by it and the Moth climbed on to it. In large size (if you have time to take a peek), you can really see those feathery antennae (that belong to moths, not butterflies).

I have been hoping and hoping that one day I would see one of these Police Car Moths. Today was THE day! I love the black and white "stained-glass window" pattern on the wings. "It is a member of the Tiger Moth family, in a subgroup that flies by day. They are easy to get close to, being clutzy fliers thatbeat their wings floppily in the mid-summer heat. Generally poor fliers are also bad tasting, and that's why they can afford to make themselves easy targets for birds. The Police Car Moth really does look like an old-fashioned police car. It is black and white, with two little orange "lights" on the top of its thorax. Wingspan is about 50 mm." Taken from "Bugs of Alberta" by John Acorn and Ian Sheldon.