This morning, May 26, 2015, as I was opening the door to Economy Exterminators in Apex, NC, I noticed what appeared to a load of bird dropping on the back door. Sometime didn’t look right because it didn’t have the flattened appearance of a bird bomb launched on a strafing mission. Closer inspection showed it to be a moth. The accompanying photographs show that it was a noctuid moth, Eudryas unio (Hübner). The common name of the moth is the Pearly Wood Nymph, but is sometimes called a bird dropping moth. It has developed this appearance to protect it from predators such as birds
The range of this moth is from Maine and southern Ontario south to Florida and west to Minnesota to Texas. Food plants for the caterpillars are grapes, evening primrose, hibiscus, and willow-herbs.
