Category: Analysis

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Sites

CHs

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Sites

AH

Hunt Property

This is the primary site surveyed, with more than half of all individual moths I have recorded since 2018 having been recorded here.

Figure 1. Map of Block Island with survey sites and areas and the Hunt property highlighted.
Figure 2. Land cover analysis of the Hunt property area within 150′ and 400′ of a point near the center of the porch lights used for surveying. Percent cover values are for within 400′ and exclude non-habitat cover.
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Sites

NMs

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Sites

NMn

Nathan Mott Park north (NMn)

Figure 1. Location of study site ‘NMn’ on Block Island on map of all survey locations.
Figure 2. Cover type map of study site NMn. Cover type is analyzed within 150′ (inner circle) and 400′ (outer circle) of a point between the two locations typically surveyed with sheets and UV light. Percent cover values are for within 400′ and exclude non-habitat cover. Sheets are usually placed at the two blue points; the light gray point has been surveyed only twice.
Figure 3. Panoramic image taken from a hilltop at study site NMn, facing generally north. This hilltop is visible in the land cover map of this study site (Fig. 2) as a bare patch of dirt just southwest of the sheet location within a pine stand.
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Sites

SR

Scout Reserve (SR)

Figure 1. Map of Block Island with survey sites and areas and the Scout reserve survey area highlighted.
Figure 2. Land cover analysis of the Scout reserve within 150′ and 400′ of a point between the two sites where sheets are set within the tupelo forest. Percent cover values are for within 400′ and exclude non-habitat cover.
Figure 3. Panoramic image taken from within the beech and tupelo forest in the Scout reserve with one of the sheets visible in its usual location. Image taken 31 May 2020, just after tupelo leaf-out and with beech leaves already mostly grown.
Categories
Hosts

bayberry

Myrica pensylvanica (bayberry)

Figure 1. Eight of the moth species specializing on bayberry on Block Island (left to right, top to bottom): Ornixolinae n. Gen. n. sp. (Gracillariidae), Coleophora comptoniella (Coleophoridae), Neotelphusa n. sp. (Gelechiidae), Olethreutes myricana (Tortricidae), Strepsicrates smithiana (Tortricidae), Archips myricana (Tortricidae), Cyclophora myrtaria (Geometridae), and Catocala muliercula (Erebidae).
Figure 2. Solitary young bayberry in summer.
Figure 3. Bayberry along inland margin of dunes, mid-June.
Figure 4. Bayberry flowers. Credit Oregon State University.
Figure 5. Coastal shrubland on Block Island in late May, east coast looking north; nearly all the bare branches in this photo are bayberry. The bayberry pictured are in bloom with inconspicuous flower clusters; the striking white flowers are of beach plum (Prunus maritima).
Figure 6. Coastal shrubland on Block Island in late May, east coast with due west just left of up following property lines; the foreground of Fig. 5 is just past the right edge of this picture. Nearly all the bare branches in this photo are bayberry; just right of center, several patches of flowering beach plum (Prunus maritima) appear whitish. Most of the light green is invasive Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica). Another invasive, beach rose (Rosa rugosa), is a main constituent of dune habitats on Block Island and appears dark green here, most noticeably where is forms nearly a monoculture at bottom right.

Specialists of bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) on Block Island

Block Island’s populations of all the species listed below are presumed to rely exclusively on bayberry, which is the only species of Myricaceae present on the island. Other Myricaceae have been reported as suitable hosts for many of the species below. Coleophora comptoniella also feeds on Betulaceae, a family scarcely found on Block Island.

Nepticulidae

Stigmella myricafoliella (Busck, 1900) is a linear leafminer of Myricaceae. Larvae develop rapidly, making the species somewhat hard to rear despite being fairly common on Block Island. While mines of this species are easily distinguished from those of the four other bayberry specialist leafminers found on Block Island, they may be indistinguishable from those of Stigmella corylifoliella (Clemens, [1862]), an adult of which was collected at light on Block Island and confirmed by DNA barcode. S. corylifoliella is one of the most polyphagous leafmining moths known, having been reared from various Betulaceae, Ericaceae, Myricaceae, Rhamnaceae, and Rosaceae. The color of the larva (pale green in myricafoliella and yellow in corylifoliella) is thought to be a consistent character separating these species. Adults of both species are externally identical to each other and a number of other Stigmella species.

Heliozelidae

Aspilanta argentifera (Braun, 1927) is a blotch miner of Myricaceae. As in all Heliozelidae, the mature larva forms a portable case out of a pair of discs cut out of the upper and lower epidermis of its host leaf and drops to the ground to pupate in its case, leaving an oval-shaped hole at the edge of its completed mine. I have never seen mines of this species, but Mike Nelson and Dave Wagner reported finding them on Block Island in their 1998 survey of leafminers. Adults are externally identical to those of Aspilanta ampelopsifoliella (Braun, 1927), which feeds on Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus virginiana). Nelson and Wagner (1998) reported mines of A. ampelopsifoliella on Block Island, and I found a vacant mine in 2019. I have seen four unidentified adults of this genus.

Gracillariidae

Caloptilia flavella (Ely, 1915) forms an underside blotch mine in bayberry and feeds within a folded leaf in later instars. We have found three adults apparently belonging to this species in our survey but have not found mines. Nelson and Wagner (1998) reported this species.

Ornixolinae n. Gen. n. sp. mines leaves of Myricaceae. The larva initially forms a linear mine before entering the midrib and feeding within in for a time. The larva then leaves the midrib and forms a large, irregular blotch mine, exiting the mine to pupate on the leaf edge or elsewhere. The larva pupates within an oblong, white cocoon ornamented with a 20 or 30 froth spherules.

Cameraria picturatella (Braun, 1916) forms an upper surface blotch mine in bayberry. Mines are brownish and occupy most of the leaf surface when completed, making them highly conspicuous. In my limited experience, the rate of parasitism is very high. The species is common on Block Island, where it is univoltine, with larvae mining July into August. Adults evidently overwinter but are rare at lights, with records from August, September, and June.

Depressariidae

Agonopterix walsinghamella (Busck, 1902) is a leaftier of Myricaceae evidently rare on Block Island, with one rearing record and five adult records.

Coleophoridae

Coleophora comptoniella (McDunnough, 1926) is a case-bearing leafminer of Myricaceae and Betulaceae that eats a series of windows in multiple leaves of the host plant from within its leaf case. The species is univoltine on Block Island with adults on wing in July and August.

Gelechiidae

Neotelphusa n. sp. is a common leaftier of Myricaceae. The species is univoltine and flies mainly in July on Block Island.

Filatima confusatella Darlington, 1949

Aroga epigaeella (Chambers, 1881)

Tortricidae

Olethreutes myricana Kearfott, 1910 is a leaftier of bayberry univoltine on Block Island with adults on wing in summer. The species is currently treated as a junior synonym of Olethreutes sericoranum (Walsingham, 1879) in the MONA checklist. If this synonymy is unwarranted, O. myricana is a specialist of Myricaceae.

Strepsicrates smithiana Walsingham, 1891

Archips myricana (McDunnough, 1923)

Pyralidae

Acrobasis comptoniella Hulst, 1890

Geometridae

Cyclophora myrtaria (Guenée, [1858])

Erebidae

Catocala muliercula Guenée, 1852

Catocala badia badia Grote & Robinson, 1866

Host specialization unclear

Pyralidae: Condylolomia participalis Grote, 1873

Notodontidae: Coelodasys apicalis Grote & Robinson, 1866

Categories
Analysis

Hosts

This section of the website contains summaries of the local moth faunae feeding on particular plants on Block Island, with emphasis on host specialist species. So far, I have added pages for only a few taxa; additional groups to be included here eventually include goldenrod, blackberry, poison ivy and sumac, cherry, tupelo, and ferns.

Detailed discussion

Eastern baccharis (Baccharis halimifolia)

Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica)

Species list only

Conifers (Pinales): Pinus thunbergii, Juniperus virginiana, others

Fagaceae: oak (Quercus), chestnut (Castanea), beech (Fagus)

Categories
Analysis

Sites

This section of the site will detail the local ecology of each of the sites surveyed for moths on Block Island. Refer to the image below for survey area codes.

Map of Block Island with survey areas labeled

Below is a list of survey areas with the major local habitat types listed

AH — shrubland, meadow, lawn, dunes

SR — tupelo and beech forest, shrubland, cherry and shad forest, marsh

NMn — meadow, shrubland, black pine stand, cherry and shad forest

NMs — cherry and shad forest, pond

CHs — meadow, shrubland, cherry and shad forest, pond, marsh

CHn — cherry and shad forest, shrubland, pond, marsh

RH — cherry and shad forest, shrubland

RP — meadow, shrubland, marsh, dunes

SP — dunes, pond, marsh

SI — salt marsh, shrubland

TP — pine forest, cherry and shad forest, shrubland

FP — meadow, shrubland, pond

Categories
Analysis

Fauna

Eventually, this section of the site will include detailed analysis of the entire moth fauna of Block Island. For now, it includes mainly brief summaries of components of the fauna, namely families. Click on families from the list at the bottom of this page to find my summaries.

I so far have published treatments of two portions of Block Island’s moth fauna, Pterophoridae and Zygaenoidea. I plan to publish treatments of the remainder of the fauna in a series of special issues (all online only and open access) of Rhode Island Naturalist, the bulletin of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey (RINHS). An introductory article to this series may be found in the spring 2023 issue of the bulletin.

All major groups of macrolepidoptera are well-described, with only a small portion of species globally awaiting description. This permits straightforward comparisons of species diversity of the major groups globally, in North America, and on Block Island. More than 73,500 described species of macromoths occur worldwide; of these, more than 5,400 (7.3%) are found in the continental US and Canada. 540 species, or about 10% of the North American fauna, have been documented on Block Island.

Figure 1. Relative species diversity of the superfamilies of macrolepidoptera worldwide, in North America north of Mexico, and on Block Island.

Taxonomic list of the moth families of Block Island with links to all family and superfamily pages on this site. Each linked page itself has a link to the corresponding node in the Identify section of the site. Asterisked families are represented on Block Island by only one species. Bolded taxa are those with published treatments.

Nepticuloidea: Nepticulidae, Opostegidae*

Adeloidea: Heliozelidae, Prodoxidae*

Tischerioidea: Tischeriidae

Tineoidea: Tineidae, Psychidae*

Gracillarioidea: Gracillariidae, Bucculatricidae

Yponomeutoidea: Yponomeutidae, Attevidae*, Plutellidae*, Glyphipterigidae, Argyresthiidae, Lyonetiidae, Bedelliidae*

Gelechioidea: Autostichidae, Lecithoceridae*, Oecophoridae, Depressariidae, Cosmopterigidae, Gelechiidae, Elachistidae, Coleophoridae, Batrachedridae, Scythrididae, Blastobasidae, Momphidae, Stathmopodidae

Pterophoroidea: Pterophoridae

Carposinoidea: Carposinidae*

Schreckensteinioidea: Schreckensteiniidae*

Choreutoidea: Choreutidae

Tortricoidea: Tortricidae

Cossoidea: Cossidae*, Sesiidae

Zygaenoidea: Zygaenidae, Limacodidae

Pyraloidea: Pyralidae, Crambidae

MACROLEPIDOPTERA

Drepanoidea: Drepanidae

Lasiocampoidea: Lasiocampidae

Bombycoidea: Saturniidae, Sphingidae

Geometroidea: Geometridae

Noctuoidea: Notodontidae, Erebidae, Euteliidae, Nolidae, Noctuidae

  • Hunt, A.S., Matthews, D.L., 2020. Pterophoridae recorded on Block Island (Rhode Island, USA), 2018–2019. News of the Lepidopterists’ Society 62(2): 68–74.
  • Hunt, A.S., 2021. Moths of Block Island (Rhode Island, USA) I: Zygaenoidea. Northeastern Naturalist 28(4): 497–510.
  • Hunt, A.S., 2023. Moths of Block Island: Introduction. Rhode Island Naturalist 18(1): 1–6.