Moth

Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!

Arctiidae, Ctenuchinae, Phoenicoprocta sanguinea.

hmmm similar: Cosmosoma demantria, Nyridela chalciope, Pheia daphanea

looks like Cosmosoma teuthras& Cosmosoma auge had fun together....

This one surely in Ctenuchini tribe of wasp moths. Very much alike its ventral part of abdomen find in Aethria genus. Big list here... http://www.boldsystems.org/views/taxbrowser.php?taxid=47043

Hi, this is a Cthenuchidae moth

awesome colours.

yo creo que tb es un Arctidae, más que un zygaenidae... sigo buscando... No tienes el libro de DeVries?

tan pequeño y tan reluciente !

Stunning colors!

damn you Costa Rica & your colorful bugs!

Check this one too.. http://bugguide.net/node/view/230828/bgimage

Try here, Matthew: http://www.barcodinglife.com/views/taxbrowser.php?taxid=4170 The specimens are dried, and somewhat difficult to translate into their living appearance, but it looked to me like Cosmosoma centralis had the yellow bars on either side of the thorax, and the white tipped antennae.

Has anyone mentioned the possibility of it being a Cosmosoma species?

Is Matthew discovered Costa Rican surprise..?

Please check its wasp moth of Arctiidae family and Genus of Cosmosoma Following is similar, may not exact specie. http://www.inra.fr/papillon/arctiid/texteng/c_demant.htm

colorful...never seen

Wasp moth

It looks like it could be some kind of borer moth. nice shot by the way!

Thanks Ken for sharing all the educational info...it is good to learn from each other so we can be more informed.

Insects use colour patterns for survival in mainly 3 ways. 1. Camouflage. These colours are usually not striking but rather blend in like a dead leaf or a mottled pattern that resembles light passing through the leaves of a tree. 2. Confusion. These colours are a mix of striking and dull. A good example is any butterfly that has brilliant colours on the upper wings and dull colours below. When a bird chases a butterfly with such colours, as the butterfly flaps its wings the bird gets confused by the constantly changing colours from brilliant flashes of blue to dull colours of brown. When the butterfly comes to rest on a twig and closes its wings, the brilliant colours disappear to a a dull colour and the bird is left wondering where its dinner went to. 3. Warning. Many insects display bright colours to warn of danger - red is a well used colour in nature. Insects use bright colours so that predators can easily recognise the warning colours and avoid eating them. Many other insects then mimic these warning colours when indeed they do not contain any poisons themselves. The trick is for the non poisonous species to never outnumber the poisonous species else there is higher chance of a predator eating a non poisonous specimen and not learn the warning colours. Colours are great in insects but there is always a reason for their patterns and it always has something to do with survival or mate recognition. cheers, Ken

brillant colors

very nice. The patern is vibrant! It seems that the red color and blue stripe against the yellow are the primary ones. Could the moth be trying to look like something else?? If one only looks at those colors, it looks like a scorpion or even a crawfish.. or I just had too much coffee.. I'm not an expert.. just saying..

Beautiful!!

very striking

Nice!

Nice colors! The white band on the antenna can probably help in the ID.

The party never ends down there, does it? Another beautiful insect.

what a stunning colorful creature!

That is a Zygaenidae moth but I am unsure of the scientific name. Great moth warning colours.