Posted on by Charlie

That “Flying Leaf” is a Moth!

I thought I saw a new kind of butterfly through the kitchen window and ran out with my camera and it was just another Banded Peacock which I’ve had scads of recently. But then I saw a brownish dead leaf fly into some of the plants in my garden (flapping its wings). I had to run get my cellphone to get close enough to it. I was hoping it would be one of the Leafwing Butterflies but now I’m pretty sure it is one of the thousands of moths that look like dead leaves and I haven’t found an ID yet. Here’s the three shots I got before he flew away, all with cellphone . . .

I believe it is probably a small moth, many of which imitate leaves. Leafwing butterflies are shaped differently.
One of Many Species of “Dead Leaf Moths”
In the garden it’s just a tiny dead leaf (that I happened to see fly in) – 🙂 The tiny green leaves are my groundcover in most of my gardens and the vines and bigger green leaves from my Flame Vine or Triquitraque. And I had to stick my hand and cellphone behind that top limb/vine for the above two shots before he flew away.

There are between 12 and 13 thousand species of Moths in Costa Rica and no one book or website has all of them, thus often difficult to identify. But I will submit the above photos to butterfliesandmoths.org and hope that one of “the moth people” will be able to identify it. That is how I got my photo of a Diva Moth identified earlier. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

8 Replies to “That “Flying Leaf” is a Moth!”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *