Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Southern Emerald Moth

By: Tom Berg

Although some of our most recognizable butterflies are brightly colored, most moths tend to be a muted brown or gray color. One exception is the Southern Emerald moth. This interesting little moth is a fairly bright green color, and green is a color that is somewhat unexpected when talking about moths (or butterflies).

Southern emerald moths are relatively small moths, usually measuring 1/2" to 1” wide, with thin wavy white lines meandering across their emerald green wings from one side to the other. Their antennae are also white. Their green wings undoubtedly help camouflage them when they land on green leaves to rest during the daylight hours. The edges of their wings have a soft fringe that may help them to fly more silently while they make their nightly rounds through fields and forests.

As their name implies, these small green moths are most common in the southern United States where the warm temperatures are more to their liking, but they have been found as far north as Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. They are extremely common in Florida, and they can be found in many places in Central America, the Caribbean and even in South America.

Caterpillars of the southern emerald moth are often called inchworms. These moths are geometer moths, belonging to the scientific family Geometridae, and their name is derived from Greek, meaning “earth-measurer”. It looks like the caterpillars are “measuring the Earth” since they use their front legs and back legs to slowly inch along like an inchworm. They are also sometimes called loopers because of their “looping” posture as they inch along.

In their home range, southern emerald moths can be attracted by leaving an exterior light on all night. Like most moths, they are attracted to bright lights. In the morning, you can go outside and see what species of moths came to visit the light during the night. There will likely be a wide variety of moths “sleeping” on the walls and ground around your light source, and if you are lucky the southern emerald moth might be among them!

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