The Moth and the Flame

IN HIS YOUTH, MOTH FANCIER NOEL MCFARLAND OFTEN PROWLED AFTER DARK OUTSIDE SALOONS IN SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, HIS HOMETOWN. HAVING THOROUGHLY RECONNOITERED THE NEIGHBORHOOD, HE AND HIS MOTH-COLLECTING buddies knew exactly where all the best neon tavern signs were the ones fatally attractive to moths on the wing. "Pabst Blue Ribbon signs were the best," McFarland says. "Remember that sign? The bluish one? That's at the blue-purple end of the spectrum, and it really gets 'em. All the moth people knew where the Pabst Blue Ribbon signs were, and at night they'd lurk around them catching moths."

Now, almost 50 years later, McFarland sits at a desk in his study-bunkhouse-hideout in a canyon in the Huachuca Mountain foothills. To say he's still a "moth person" understates his zeal. Moths are his everlasting passion. He's here because southeastern Arizona's cool, wet canyons rank with the world's best places to find moths or birds, or reptiles, or butterflies, or even wild orchids.

A borderline moth ignoramus myself, I sought out McFarland for answers to some idle questions I had pondered at one time or another. What's the difference between a moth and a butterfly? Why do moths fly into flames and hot light bulbs, a practice that usually ends in slow incineration? Where do they go in daytime?

Now, almost 50 years later, McFarland sits at a desk in his study-bunkhouse-hideout in a canyon in the Huachuca Mountain foothills. To say he's still a

SPHINX MOTHS AND FATAL ATTRACTIONS

McFarland hands me a wellthumbed copy of Arizona Highways. The logo is old-fashioned, the paper pulpy. On the cover, a grainy color photo is identified as Hampton's painted tiger-moth. April, 1951, is the date; price, 35 cents."

"Lloyd Martin, who wrote that cover story, was my mentor," McFarland explains. "He was curator of entomology at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, and he gave up his Saturdays to work with kid collectors. I was one of those kids."

Though we tend to think of moths as drab nighttime cousins of butterflies, the relationship is really the other way around. The order Lepidoptera, which includes both, is composed mostly of moths. Thus for every species of butterfly found in southeastern Arizona, there may be up to 15 species of moths.

The differences? By and large, if it looks like a butterfly, and it's flying in full daylight, it is a butterfly; after dark, it's a moth. There are exceptions. Some sphinx moths, for example, often flit from blossom to blossom in full daylight or at dusk; larger ones are sometimes mistaken for hummingbirds, so rapid are their wing beats.

Other differences: butterflies' antennae are clubbed at the end; moths' antennae are either threadlike or feathery. Most butterflies are quite colorful, moths drab; but some moths, tiger moths notably, are as brightly colored as any butterfly. Butterflies, generally, are slender, moths thick-bodied; but here again, certain moths are quite streamlined. Geometrid moths, named for the looping "land measuring" motion of their inch-worm larvae, are skinny fast fliers.

SPHINX MOTHS AND FATAL ATTRACTIONS

The best way to observe moths is to install a black light (a longwave ultraviolet light) against a light-colored backdrop. On dark nights, moths will home in on the light almost immediately. "Home in" is misleading; actually moths are trapped by light. We've long known that moths are powerfully drawn to light, especially the ultraviolet band. One widely accepted theory holds that moths navigate by fixing upon dim sources of natural light and are disoriented by bright artificial light. Spiraling ever closer to its source, they become hopelessly lost. Turn out the light, and you set them free.Collecting moths by black-lighting is a cinch, but to learn something about their life histories where they lay eggs, what they eat as larvae, how long they live as pupae a good moth collector must find them by day, no easy task. Moths, you see, survive in daylight by pretending to be something else: a leaf, sand, ground litter, or even charred wood. Without this ability to conceal themselves, most moths would be quickly seen and snapped up by birds. If a foraging bird encounters a white spatter that resembles its own fecal droppings, however, its bird brain simply doesn't register that the spatter could be fake. Of course if the droppings should move, the bird spots the deception and quickly gobbles up the moth.Other moths camouflage themselves as lichens, bark, dead leaves, or flower petals. Lichen-mimicking moths need not necessarily come to rest on lichen-encrusted rocks. Any surface on which lichens are apt to grow is good

MIRACAVIRA BRILLIANS

SPHINX MOTHS AND FATAL ATTRACTIONS

Continued from page 27 Enough to trick most predators.

Not all moths use cryptic col-oring to fake out predators. Tiger moths, for example, though often brilliantly colored, are avoided by birds. The reason? They either taste bad or are poisonous.

Some of the larger silk moths have eyespots on their wings that scare off smaller birds. Big birds aren't much fooled, though. Jays and thrashers will wolf down moths of any size, owl eyes and all.

Finally there are moths with beautifully colored underwings. At rest on a tree trunk, one of these moths folds and covers its underwings, becoming with the bark. But if frightened by the snap of a twig or a bird landing nearby, it flashes those under-wings and flies off, flaunting its colors. As it alights on a nearby tree trunk it folds its sparkling wings, becoming instantly invisible. By the time the astonished bird recovers, it's too late. The moth has become bark again.

As I prepare to leave, McFarland turns again to the cover photo of that tattered 1951 issue of Arizona Highways. “See that mouse-gray and rosy-pink triangle?” he says, pointing to the tiger moth photo. “It resembles a pattern woven into a lot of older Navajo rugs that my father used to collect. That moth occurs throughout the Four Corners area; it's one that every Navajo would have seen.” He looks up. I return his smile. We like it, the idea of a Navajo weaver copying a moth design. Art imitating Nature.