280 days of Urbpandemonium #118

[urbpan]

This fairly large (over an inch long) moth was resting on our shed, when I came along and bothered it.


It drew its forewings back and flashed its high-contrast underwings at me. If I was a bird, would it have scared me away? It's successful enough that there is a whole category of moths called underwings, with different contrasting colors and patterns on the second set of wings.


This one is Catocala epione*


When it was a caterpillar it was over on my shagbark hickory tree, feeding on the leaves.

* Generic epithet Catocala is Greek meaning "beautiful below."Epione was a mythological Greek healer, wife of Aesclepius, mother of Hygeia, Panacea, Machaon and several others.