It’s winter in North Carolina. That’s not to say that it’s cold here everyday because that’s certainly not the case. It was close to 75 degrees yesterday! But, we have had some very cold days and several nights where the temps have dropped well below freezing. It’s cold enough that there aren’t many insects out, so I’m always excited when I see one. Recently, however, there’s been one place that I know I can see live insects outdoors everyday, regardless of the weather or the temperature! My main office is in this lovely trailer at the museum field station where I work:
Back of the office trailer
Classy, eh? As you can probably tell from looking at it, our little office building is not very weatherproof. Cold seeps in during the winter, the AC seeps out in the summer, the doors don’t seal well, and the three rooms vary from too warm to too cold with no room in that perfect Goldilocks zone. The trailer has two lights on the front, one by each door, and they come on at night. Only one works. For the last three weeks, a moth has been sitting in the exact same spot on the wall of the trailer when I’ve arrived at work each day, right next to the working light:
Moth
I wasn’t convinced it was even alive after a week and a half, so I poked it. It moved a bit (though not much as it was a chilly day), so it has clearly chosen that spot. It seems like a bad spot, right out there in the open on the white wall, but the moth apparently likes it.
I often leave work after dark, so I look for the moth every night when I leave to see if it’s still there. I couldn’t say why exactly, but that little moth, hanging tenaciously to the side of the trailer day and night, amuses me. Over the last few weeks, however, it’s been joined by other moths of the same species, one more every 2-3 nights. Warm, cold – it doesn’t matter. Recently I counted 8 moths near the light when I left for the evening:
Moths at light – circles highlight the moths and the arrow points to one additional moth right next to the light that you can’t see in this image
Most of the moths are gone by morning; only that one moth I’ve been seeing for weeks in that one spot is left on the wall once it gets light. I couldn’t say whether the rest have left under their own power or have been eaten by something, but the next night there will be just as many moths back by the light when I leave. I suspect they’re hiding during the day and coming back to the light at night.
Now we all know moths are attracted to lights, so seeing moths near a porch light isn’t all that exciting. What fascinates me about these particular moths at this particular time is how cold it sometimes is when they appear. I don’t really expect to see insects out where they’re exposed to the cold and weather (these get rained on fairly often and got snowed on last week), plainly visible to predators, on days where the temperature barely gets above freezing. But there they all are! We had a few mornings with heavy frost last week and that little moth by the light was practically frozen solid, frosted over like everything else. Yet it moved when I poked it after it had a chance to defrost. It’s definitely still alive and is presumably capable of hiding during the day if it wanted to.
I’ve never seen moths on the wall of the trailer in the winter before, so this is a new experience – and one that I don’t know how to explain. I’ve gone down to our outdoor classroom building to see if there are moths near the light on that building, but there never are. The walls are brown, the light faces the forest instead of the prairie, and the building is largely unheated, so maybe it’s not as good a spot for the moths. There are also no moths near the much larger lights in the parking lot, nor on the concrete building across the parking lot where the Musuem’s wet collections are stored (whitish, superior climate control). There’s something about this particular spot on the trailer that these moths like. My best guess: they like the light and the heat that oozes out of the walls. The walls are still quite cold on the outside, but perhaps they are just enough warmer than the surrounding area that the moths can warm up a bit?
I might not understand why they’re there or how they are even capable of coming and going in such cold weather, but I enjoy my moths. It’s nice to know that even on the coldest nights, I can go out and see a half-dozen little chilly insects hanging on the wall. I might not live in a place that is warm enough to get lots of insects year around anymore, but at least I know those little moths are out there. That’s good enough.
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The Dragonfly Woman 
I see those for a few weeks here, but then they go dormant. Maybe where you are, they will make it through the winter.
Hmm. We’ll see. It’s supposed to get really cold later this week. I keep thinking they’ll disappear eventually!
I like your gravatar.
Thanks! She’s my interpretation of a character from an Australian aboriginal myth about a dragonfly woman that I read about in a scientific paper several years ago. The authors had chosen her name, Coon Undura, to represent a species of Australian sand fly they were naming. At the time I read that paper, people were calling me the Dragonfly Woman, so I liked the idea of using her as my mythical alter ego and designed the image (originally a linoleum block print and later scanned) I use as my avatar to represent a blend of Coon Undura and me. When I started my blog 7 or 8 years later, it seemed like a good name and image to use for a blog that was primarily about aquatic insects at the time!
Aquatic insects are fascinating. Nature itself is fascinating. What a cool idea, being a dragonfly. Do you have a retelling of the myth on your website?
No, but only because I haven’t been able to hunt it down yet! All I’ve got to go on is the description in that paper, which directs me to a book I haven’t been able to get my hands on yet. Someday!
How elusive. Maybe you will meet someone one day who will be able to tell you the story. :-)
Loved your comments about your moths! Isn’t it most interesting that something as simple as a moth can bring such pleasure? Love your photography also. Met you years ago in Missouri at Alex Wild’s BugShot workshop! Happy New Year!
Thanks! And I’ll admit that I like being the kind of person who finds a few moths near a light something amazing. It makes the world more interesting. :)
Glad you like the photos! I don’t put my BugShot skills to use all the time, I’ll admit, but I have seen a significant jump in my skills at each of the three of them I’ve been to. Hope you got something good out of that first one too!
I think these are mealworm moths. Couldn’t tell the size looking quickly at your post. but it looks like one and the fact that it was joined by others makes me really think that. If so, they will eat holes in anything but of course love nuts and whole grains. They will put holes in wool but don’t continue to eat it. Fat white larvae emerge from webs spun into the edges of cans and flaps of boxes in your pantry.
Thanks for the ideas about what they might be! I’m told they’re fall cankerworm moths by some moth experts I asked for an ID, which means they’re a pest species that has just started showing up in NC. That might be the reason why I haven’t seen them in the past! The wingless females are supposed to be out on the trees January and February, so I want to start looking around for them. I would love to see one!
Here in the UK the winter and spring struggle with temperatures rising and falling like a yoyo. The insects must be quite confused by it all.
We have had a lot of that going on here this year too. Tomorrow is the start of a very cold spell though. Will be interesting to see if the moths make it through that!
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I have three moths hanging around my trailor we put them out and at least one is back within the hour we are up in the thousand islands and it’s warm they just fly around the same spot about afoot in diamintor . We have a sick grandchild and I think they are here to keep my mind off her . Is there anything spiritual about them ? Would love to know?
I personally don’t put a lot of stock into the idea of a spiritual connection with insects, but I also don’t completely discount the idea. This is the time of year people get moths in their houses. However, if you took pleasure in them and they took your mind off things, sounds like they did you a service regardless of whether there was a deeper connection there or not.