Up until a few years ago, I was guilty of this ignorance like everyone else. That was until one morning when I observed 10 beautiful, fragile, delicately light green moths clinging to the outside wall of our house, just beneath a small light that was inadvertently left on all night. When I took the time to really look at them, I discovered they had exquisite, rather obscure line marking on their wings. They were absolutely beautiful! It was at that moment I decided I was going to learn the names of all future visitors to our night light, and the light was going to be left on every night to encourage them. That decision opened up another world of awe and mystery for me. I have often wondered why God created these beauties of the evening, when most of them would go unnoticed. Then, I discovered that many of them are visible during the day, if you make an effort to discern what is around you.
This is an excerpt from the Wild Ones Journal
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Taking a closer look at the trees and shrubs growing close to your house, the leaves on the vegetation growing along your woodland and prairie pathways will often reveal a night-flying moth resting on the upper or underside of the leaves. Sometimes they are camouflaged against the bark of a tree. Left undisturbed, they frequently remain in these locations during the daylight hours, flying away only at dusk.
Since I have been identifying and studying wild plants for over 20 years, I have often wondered how I missed the moths during that time. It wasn’t until my eyes actually made a concerted effort, that I was able to find, identify and photograph over 385 live moth species, including many in their larval stage (because I actually reared them).
Peterson’s Field Guide to Eastern Moths by Charles V. Covell Jr. is the only good book on identifying moths. Unfortunately, that is now out of print. There are two elementary books on caterpillars: A Golden Guide to Butterflies and Moths by Robert T. Mitchell and Herbert S. Zim, and Peterson’s First Guide to Caterpillars by Amy Bartlett Wright. A good, more in-depth, easy-to-understand caterpillar book is desperately needed.
Some moths are day-fliers, but the majority are night-fliers. Their food plant requirements are quite specific and lean toward trees and shrubs, whereas the butterflies generally prefer the forbs. If you have oaks, willows, maples, elms, cherry, dogwoods, viburnums and any of the native trees and shrubs in your yard, you should have moth visitors. In the larval stage, they will eat the leaves of these plants, and they themselves provide food for many birds and animals.
Each moth family reveals unique identifying characteristics, i.e., the way they fold their wings over their hindwings, their resting pose, similarity in the shape of their outline, their demeanor (docile or skittish), etc.
I am sharing with you photos of my five favorites [Staff Note: the original photos are no longer available; highlighted photos are from iNaturalist], each from a different family. The selection process has been a difficult one because I admire every one of the 385 moths I have photographed. Perhaps some day one of you, who is much younger than I, will publish that long-awaited comprehensive book on the mysterious and misunderstood moths and their larvae before some of them become extinct.
In the classification of insects, the Lepidoptera Order is comprised by the butterflies and moths. Because of the availability of many books, magazine articles, TV specials and seminar speakers, most of us are quite knowledgeable about the butterflies that float through our landscapes. The misunderstood and relatively unknown members of this order are the moths. Of the nearly 94,000 known species of insects in America (north of Mexico), 11,230 species belong to the Lepidoptera Order. Only about 760 of these are butterflies; the rest are moths. Some species of moths are yet to be identified and may become extinct even before being discovered.
Janice Stiefel was a long-time member of the Wild Ones Door Peninsula (WI) Chapter and frequent contributor to the Wild Ones Journal.
Staff Note (2025):
This post was originally published in 2001 by Janice Stiefel and is shared here as a reflection on the beauty and ecological value of moths. While the original article included photographs of the author’s favorite moths, those images are no longer available. However, the five species referenced—Pero honestaria, Diachrysia balluca, Datana angusii, Automeris io, and Hemaris diffinis—remain stunning examples of moth diversity and can be explored further through field guides and online databases.
Although some of the resources mentioned (like Peterson’s Field Guide to Eastern Moths) are now out of print, new tools and field apps have emerged to support moth identification. Janice’s wonder and respect for these “beauties of the evening” remains as relevant as ever—especially today, as we continue to recognize the role moths play in pollination, food webs, and ecosystem health.
Stiefel, J. (2001). Beauties of the evening: The mysterious, misunderstood moths. Wild Ones Journal, 14(3), 3.