Saturday, May 30, 2009

White Tipped Black Moths


This was taken in my back yard in St Petersburg, FL. I've never seen these little moths before and I couldn't find them in any of the insect books I have. Finally, I gave up and Googled, "black moth, Florida" and finally came up with the name of these little guys.

They are so cool with their red thorax and black abdomen and, as you can see they're pretty small. They really love my Mexican Sunflower tree, too. They were just all over it. Each one landing on a flower and staying there for quite some time.

To judge their relative size, I've included the whole flower in this photo. The flower is about 4 - 5" in diameter, so by comparison, these are pretty small moths. They're easier to see if you click on the photos to see a larger version.

These were shot after 4:00 pm when the sun was pretty low in the sky. Especially when photographing yellows, the sun needs to be lower in the sky and not shining directly on the flower so the yellow doesn't blow out or become over saturated.

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