Virginia Ctenucha and Small Magpie Moths

 While birds are busy raising their young, I have been looking for anything that flies, and there are plenty.

 I came across this Virginia Ctenucha at Long Pond and it was fairly easy to identify. I just "Googled" a straightforward description and up came many pictures.

 This moth is big by comparison to others in the province. It really surprised me to find a moth just as pretty as a butterfly. In fact, there are many like that.

 Note the blue body.

 This Small Magpie moth, on the other hand, was very hard to identify. For an hour I scrolled through image after image looking for a picture and a name of this moth.

 It seems there is a real void in the identification tools available in Newfoundland to identify both moths and butterflies. These little moths are typically about 1 inch in size with wings spread. They are quite hard to track down and to photograph. Yet, the end result provides a great opportunity to study them.

For that reason, I am working to identify numerous pictures I have to post in this blog. If all of them take as long to identify as this one, it will be a long time before I get them up on the site. I also have amassed a good collection of dragonflies that I would like to share.