Moth ID, please?

[fishinchicks]

This little moth has been hanging out by my rhubarb & basil, which are both being eaten by something. What am I dealing with? Bigger question would be, what are it's relatives eating in the fields?

[jentz]

Actually its a butterfly,Notice the annenta their not fuzzy or complicated,Just straight antenna with a slight bulbulas end.Moths have complicated anntenna.Is this butterfly just a tiny one maybe 3/8 to 1/2 inch and flits around quickly?? The size is deceiving in the pic.Nice pic I do have to say.My call would be a butterfly called Violate.Now my spelling may be wrong,The color violate violat??Oh well I believe it to be a violet.It likes sugars,mud and shouldn't be harming your plants.Now the larger white and yellow,The cabbage and sulpher do lay eggs on those types plants and their larvel underlings eat lots of garden greens.

[fishinchicks]

Thank you, jentz! They are very small. It wasn't easy to get a photo of this one...they do move around very quickly. If they like mud, that would explain their presence. I've been out watering plants all day.

[Dotch]

jentz is absolutely correct that it is a butterfly although looking closely at your photo I'd say it's probably an eastern tailed blue. It appears to the same one featured in the recent IPM update I received from my friend and entomologist Bruce Potter at the SWROC. Go to the right hand side of the page where it says "Recently Added" and scroll down to IPM Stuff Newsletter and click on "Issue 11". Should be on page 8. Some of the light reading I do when I'm not making prank phone calls...

http://swroc.cfans.umn.edu/ResearchandOutreach/PestManagement/index.htm

[fishinchicks]

Thanks, Dotch! We've sat in on sessions with Bruce at some of the organic field days at SWROC. I've been on a few advisory committees for them as well. Thanks for the link!

[Dotch]

No sweat. Your photo was actually better than the one Bruce had in his newsletter. I must be into bright shiny objects though as I didn't read and comprehend the text across the top of the photo very well. Hopefully the newsletter covered most of that. We're seeing some of the same in soybean fields right now, more so on the western fields we look at. Lots of grasshoppers, green cloverworms and forage loopers eating soybean leaves. Below threshold levels of feeding but bear watching.

Funny you should mention rhubarb. Last week I looked at a customer's rhubarb which was being gnawed on. They had dusted it with what smelled like Sevin so I didn't handle it. I did notice several dead and dying grasshoppers under the leaves so it was probably safe to assume they were the culprits. That and I could see there had been some frantic emergency weeding before I got there, judging by the large wads of foxtail laying in the yard around it. Take away their food source and since grasshoppers are opportunists, will munch on whatever is available. Since this is a habitat forum, the good news is there are lots of things for pheasant and Hun chicks to feast on out there this year thanks in large measure to the drought last year. They certainly shouldn't starve anyway.

[LABS4ME]

Huns? What's that? We still have Huns? I miss the days of flushing coveys of Huns. That was fun!

We planted 5 food plots in beans this year... it's not the cloverworms and grasshoppers that are eating the leaves... in fact the pheasants up there will not be eating the culprits... HA!

Good Luck!

Ken

[fishinchicks]

The grasshoppers have definitely been getting thick around here. So far, the beans look good. Not a lot of leaf damage.

Noticed a lot of butterfly activity when we were out in the CRP grounds next to the barley/field pea field. We've also been seeing an increase in all wildlife activity lately - pheasant, deer, and fox have all been frequenting our grove.