Eyed sphinx moths

Native New England Moths: Eyed sphinx moths in the subfamily Smerinthinae. Most of these images show the moths in their full eyes-wide defense display. When resting they fold their leaf-like wings over the bright eyespots, and are camouflaged to perfection. Can you believe these incredible moths are flying around YOUR woods at night?

By popular demand, we will be adding adult moth image panels to our traveling "The Caterpillar Lab" exhibits in 2017. I resisted doing this for a long time for a few reasons. I wanted to specifically highlight the caterpillars as important and interesting organisms, independent of their adult counterparts, and I felt that showing the adults could take away from this message. I also wanted to show adult moths and butterflies as more than just a pair of pretty wings. Much of the photography available was of flat dorsal shots of the spread wings, with little or nothing hinting at the creature below. So I started taking stage photographs of my own backyard moths last season and we now have enough to go on to start something new in 2017! I'm looking forward to seeing how these simple images will affect the dynamics of a TCL program.

- Sam TCL Director