Birds and Moths (1 Viewer)

The Fall webworm moth (Hyphantria cunea) seems to like the small park near my home, in Bucharest. During the last two or thee weeks I saw maybe hundreds of individuals from this species, most of them entirely white, only a few showing a variable number of black dots (see first two pics attached here). During this time, I had the opprotunity to see a lot of birds eating them. They are easy to find, because they are easy to spot on the dark bark of the trees, sometimes gathered in large numbers (for instance, in a morning, I saw a tree with more than twenty moths from this species on its bark). During this season, birds obviously need a lot of food for chicks, so this "invasion" seems to be hightly appreciated by them, as you can see in the last three pics attached here. The picture with the Syrian Woodpecker by the courtesy of Johannes Ferdinand (www.bird-lens.com).

More about the Fall webworm moth here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_webworm

What interesting moths, and fabulous photos, Cristian. A fascinating post. Thanks!

Cristian

Very nice photos. However, the species to which you link appears to be a North American and although it seems to have been recorded as a pest throughout Europe, if these were taken in the UK, I would identify the first as White Satin:-

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1532

and the second as White Ermine:-

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=6095

I have not checked for European confusion species unrecorded in Britain. Are you confident on the identifications?

All the best

Didn't he say they were taken in Bucharest?

Sam

knotsbirder said:

Didn't he say they were taken in Bucharest?

Sam

Click to expand...

No issue on range on either species as far as I can see:-

http://www.lepidoptera.pl/show.php?ID=251&country=UK

http://www.lepidoptera.pl/show.php?ID=210&country=UK

Are you suggesting that the two species can be excluded by range or alternatively the photos more resemble the North American species?

All the best

Images of Hyphantria cunea linked below:-

http://www.hlasek.com/hyphantria_cunea_6879.html

http://www.technogreen.it/avversita/hyphantriacunea.html

Do you think the photos more resemble these?

All the best

Paul Chapman said:

Images of Hyphantria cunea linked below:-

http://www.hlasek.com/hyphantria_cunea_6879.html

http://www.technogreen.it/avversita/hyphantriacunea.html

Do you think the photos more resemble these?

All the best

Click to expand...

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were saying, and I do.

Sam

Hi Sam and Paul,

I'm not an expert in moths, so maybe I'm wrong, but last year was a similar "invasion" and a local expert identified all the individuals photographed by my as fall webworm moths.