Day 2 - Owlet moths and sketching attempts

 June 29th 2025

I found this beautiful Spirama spp moth on my window sill on my late father's birthday - June 24th.  The ancient Greeks believed that moths carried the spirits of the dead, who visited their loved ones.  That is me looking for a connection.  Science shows that these Erebidae moth sightings go up in June, and so too my sighting.

It was dark, past 9 at night, and I as about to shut the window to keep you-know-who out, when I saw this creature.  We both startled each other, and as I gasped in wonder, it flew into the room and fluttered about in panic.  I turned the fans off, alarmed that it would fly into the fan and meet a horrible death, and it slowly calmed and sat on our white walls, when I got this picture.  

What a beauty, is this where our kalamkari artists got their inspiration from?  Lok at the beautiful border design and those lovely "eyes".  

Next morning, he was still there, though on a different wall.  I opened out the windows, and as I sipped my coffee, he (from the markings I have decided it is a male, I may be wrong), kind of fluttered out, in an uneven zig zag flight into the cooler morning air.

Now on the evening of the 29th, Abhishekha Krishnagopal, a young artist and ecologist kicked off the nature journaling journey for Monsoon Beauty 2025, and I dipped in and out of her webinar.  She made us use circles and squares and draw fruits and flowers with those circles.  "See?, wasn't that easy?", she would sweetly say.  Here at home, I grunted and rolled my eyes, oh yes indeed.  Easy for you to say, not for me who has been traumatised by biology drawings since childhood.

The point that she made was also that when you sketch, you notice textures and aspects that you do not usually.  You appreciate the insect, flower or tree that much more.  

So I decided to give the moth with the soul and the eye a sketching shot.  I did notice and appreciate the way the forewings and hindwing arranged themselves/. I noticed that they eyes were like inverted commas.  I noticed the thorax in-between the wings.  And I noticed that single outstretched leg.  

  

What do you say, appa?  Pass or Fail?  😁

Hairy Caterpillar on the drumstick tree

9th September 540pm

I initially thought this was Metanastria hyrtaca caterpillars, but I think they are actually Eupterote mollifera caterpillars.

Seen on our drumstick tree.

They were all crowded on the bark of the tree, in the shade in the day - when I first saw them.  

8th September - Tree 1 5pm.  Not much movement seen.

9th September Tree 2 - they were alive and one the move.  Seemed smaller than the other tree caterpillars.  I could not locate the caterpillars on Tree 1.

I will keep a watch on the tree - Hopefully, the caterpillars do nt completely defoliate the tree.  According to the literature on the internet, these moths scrape and gnaw at the bark as well as the leaves.  I did not see any leaves eaten up.

More as and when I observe.

12th September

Looks like both sets of Caterpillars are on one tree now!

Subsequently, for many days I could not locate them.  Then I found some at the lower part of the tree, and some going to the base.

27th September

Hairy Caterpillars on one trunk and a bark gecko on the other.

The caterpillars looked worn and scruffy.

One liked like it was making its way down to the soil?

Pupal stage is in the soil, I read.

Some more close to the soil.

A moth of such silken beauty

Tusar Silk Moth

More gorgeous than the silk 

you spin, cocooned.

Silky Resplendence.  Evanescent. 

Bed of green.  Go in peace.

Antheraea paphia, South India small tussore moth.  Male.

Last moments of life - it lay there, moving feebly in the sun and breeze, and I marvelled at its markings.

I learnt from Bhanu that they are non feeding adults, with no mouth parts.  These Saturnid moths mate, lay eggs & perish, their job done.

I drew attention to the moth, to all who passed by - some nodded in politeness, others hurried on, not moved by this beauty, I wondered how.  An older man came and peered and nodded and marvelled at nature's creation.  A young woman's eyes lit up at the word "silk".

I will be on the look out for eggs and caterpillars on possible host plants in the neighbourhood - Terminalia species, hoping the moth's cycle of life continues.

Day 3 - The moths on lace - at Sally Lake

 Oct 3rd 2022

After the avian-dry morning at Jia grasslands, the consensus was for tea at Sally Lake again!

Sally Lake had something besides the tea, we discovered.  The dining room curtains were full of resting moths.

Here are the pictures which I shall identify by and by on iNat.

The LesserAtlas Moth?

This one at Yatri Nivas

Excited by this, Yuvan successfully pleased for a night moth session at Sally Lake and we went back later that night, armed with the bulb, put outside the wall on the side of the building.

After wandering around for a while, we returned to find more cicadas than moths.

As we stood and chatted, Vijay and Yuvan found the local manager very interested and intrigued with what was happening, and wondered why we were interested in these little "pests" that fall into the food and are a general nuisance.  At the end of the chat, he was quite convinced and decided he wouldn't treat them as pests and attempt not to kill them. Mission accomplished wouldn't you say?

Apona Shevaroyensis

April/May 2018

This large brown moth was seen every night at the Yercaud Youreka camp. Attracted by the lights of the dining hall, they would come and sit on the rafters, as also rest on the floor. Unfortunately, the ambient light was poor and I had only my phone camera to depend upon.

The moth was a light brown, with hairy antlers and was around 12-15 cms wingspan.  It was slow and clumsy.

I went through Ryan Brook's amazing collection of moth pictures on Flickr, and have made a tentative guess.

Tentative id is Eupterote geminata

If it is a correct id, then this moth is seen ony in India and Sri Lanka, and was identified by someone called Walker in 1855!!

Update - 2022 - Thanks Sagarika.  Looks like Apona-shevaroyensis.  I will update the id.