Port in a Storm

After a flash thunderstorm, this skittish fellow who normally refuses to pose for pictures, clings to the grasses in the wind to dry its wings. Nature preserve, June, 2015

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Cisseps fulvicollis is a day-flying narrow-winged tiger moth. It is small to medium size (FW length 15 - 21 mm) with a relative large body for the size of its elongate wings. The head and collar are light orange. The thorax is brown gray and the abdomen is slightly metallic blue-black. The forewings are warm brownish gray and the hindwings are black peripherally and translucent pale gray-white with black veins centrally. The black antennae are bipectinate, slightly wider in males than in females.

This moth resembles moths of the day-flying genus Ctenucha. It can be told from both of the species of this genus found in North America by the combination of orange collar, black tegulae, and pale central hindwings.