Scarce Prominent (Odontosia carmelita) - warming up
A new species for the year here in Scarce Prominent. Lovely looking moth. Sadly wasn't too keen on letting me get a nice pic of it's resting pose, instead choosing to warm itself up before flying off. The process that some insects (heterothermic insects) undergo before flight is called thermoregulation, whereby the wings are vibrated by near simultaneously moving their wing muscles (usually one set of muscles controls the upward movement and another set controls the downward movement) It's a process that I see regularly on releasing moths from the mothtrap, especially ofter chily nights. This image is a composite of 4 images taken during this moths warmup, to show the limited amount movement of the wings compared to flight. This was an idea I had at the time, I will try and get a longer series of images next time, I think that might work better.
Scarce Prominent (Odontosia carmelita) - warming up
A new species for the year here in Scarce Prominent. Lovely looking moth. Sadly wasn't too keen on letting me get a nice pic of it's resting pose, instead choosing to warm itself up before flying off. The process that some insects (heterothermic insects) undergo before flight is called thermoregulation, whereby the wings are vibrated by near simultaneously moving their wing muscles (usually one set of muscles controls the upward movement and another set controls the downward movement) It's a process that I see regularly on releasing moths from the mothtrap, especially ofter chily nights. This image is a composite of 4 images taken during this moths warmup, to show the limited amount movement of the wings compared to flight. This was an idea I had at the time, I will try and get a longer series of images next time, I think that might work better.