Yesterday, Heidi and I traveled to the Brewster County DPS/DMV in Alpine to get some affairs in order.
In the middle of the afternoon we came across a huge sphinx moth snoozing on the outward side of a window on the DPS building.
I was about to quickly write it off as a "surely" fairly common certain Ceratomia species;I was getting tired.
Heidi wasn't so sure of the assumption within my rapid response. "I don't know about that.."
I happened to have my camera in the truck on this trip. This is what I took these pictures with.
The only camera Heidi had was the one in her cell phone. She took some pictures nonetheless. In fact, the moth actually spread its forewings momentarily to give us a brief glimpse of the upper-side of its generally covered hindwings.
The photo that cinched, unanimously, the ID with some fairly knowledgeable folks in the lepidoptera world:
Heidi's:
Lintneria istar, "Istar Sphinx" moth.
New species for us!
New genus for us!
What a team we are. What a balance. :-)
Thank goodness for Heidi.
Thank goodness for so many reasons..
And a bare-basics cellphone w/ camera.
No comments:
Post a Comment