PRIMROSE MOTH
Here, this evening primrose flower has closed around the Primrose Moth inside. You can see the edge of the moth's wings peeking out.
Primrose Moth. These beautiful moths hide inside evening primrose flowers during the day. Fresh evening primroses are yellow, but the flowers fade to pink as they age. The pink-and-yellow Primrose Moths are well-camouflaged inside these flower blossoms.
This Primrose Moth was resting head downward in an evening primrose flower. I took this photo in the morning, and the moth was probably waiting for the flower to close around him, hiding him for the day. (Evening primrose flowers typically close during the heat of the day.)
This Primrose Moth is hiding beneath a cluster of unopened flower buds. Primrose Moths typically fly during the month of August. Almost all of my sightings have been in August, except for one on September 1st.
These two Primrose Moths were sharing a single flower, snug as two peas in a pod. The second moth is still inside the flower. You can just barely see the fringe of its wings.
This is one of my favorite moth species. (Okay, I have a lot of favorites, but Primrose Moths are definitely in the top five!) It is hard not to fall in love with a moth this beautiful ... and there is something enchantingly fairy-like about a creature that lives inside a flower blossom.
There is a lot of color variation in this species. Some individuals are brighter pink, but in others, the pink shading is more muted.
Evening primroses are fairly common, weedy plants, but this moth is an uncommon species. Look for these moths in places where the ground has never been disturbed, such as remnant prairies. The photos on this page were all taken at either Huffman Prairie or along the Great Miami River, where the ground would have been too wet to plow.