White Pine Angle - Macaria pinistrobata

Last night was my first time trying a new light source for mothing - I used LED Strip Lights (395nm). I didn't get that many moths (or bycatch either), but weather conditions were not ideal as the moon was pretty bright and the temperatures were much cooler than normal. Also, I had an incandescent bulb on near the LED, so I'm not sure if they interfere with each other or not? I usually have a blacklight near the incandescent light and don't have a problem. Anyway, I'll be trying the LED strip again in a couple days once conditions improve.

WS: ~25 mm. Whitish gray FW with fragmented, wavy black lines. ST area had a black spot at the midpoint and a large, black subapical patch. Host: White pine

Habitat: Attracted to an LED light strip in a semi-rural area

comments (2)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Thanks for sharing your experience with the LED light. I wish I had clear answers but I don't, as the situation isn't controlled, too many variables at play, as you said the weather and the other light. During our Colombia trip, we always used a combination of both UV and incandescent at close distance from each other. With great success, as you know. Yet it doesn't provide a pure conclusion. Perhaps just as many or more would come with only UV, or basically any normal light at all. Then there's the conditions and the particular life cycle stage the population may be in.

Stand-alone, there is some evidence out there suggesting that UV light attracts not only more moths, also more taxa:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000632071100231X?via%3Dihub

Yet it doesn't say whether an additional non-UV light impacts this, either positively or negatively. My unfounded gut feeling is that the strength and direction of each light may matter (meaning, the normal light should not "outshine" the UV light).
Posted 6 years ago
1. Christine Young
  
  Lion
  
  So, I was too hasty in my assessment...I got higher species diversity, but less biomass than usual. So, more species, but fewer individuals. I think the weather was a big factor in reduced numbers. I also think your thought of not letting the normal light outshine the UV makes sense, and I think my lights were too close together. The 395 nm UV is actually impressively bright though and you need to be careful of your eyes when looking at it. Posted 6 years ago

The White pine angle

''Macaria pinistrobata'', the white pine angle, is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is found in Nova Scotia, Maine, Quebec, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.

There are one to two generations per year. The larvae feed on ''Pinus strobus''.

Info 5 0

Similar species: Moths And Butterflies

Species identified by Christine Young