Greetings!

Well, July is just a couple days away.  Did you know that July is the month to see the most species of moths?  In fact, the last week of July is National Moth Week.  One of my favorite places to survey moths is my old office on Oakland Mills Rd.  In fact, I went by the office a couple weeks back to look at the moths.  I was excited to see a moth I know I had never seen before.  I later identified it as the Wood Leopard Moth seen below.


My excitement though was short-lived.  I looked on the Maryland Biodiversity Project website and learned that it was a non-native species.  Unfortunately, it is a pest for fruit growers.  

Many of you are familiar with the Giant Leopard Moth (which is native) in the photo below.  Both Leopard Moths certainly look similar, but can easily be identified by looking at the spot arrangement.  




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