Catocala musings continued

"Catocala derives from the Greek 'kato' meaning below and 'kalos' meaning beautiful, and refers to the brightly coloured hindwings of the underwing moths."--Arkive.org

Just about the best thing besides walking at Oak Point Nature Preserve is wallowing in Greek and Latin root words.

I also like the description of these moths as "cryptically colored" My blog muse sent me a link to annual population variation information, but I broke the server somehow.

Here are some good links about Catocala moths:

• http://pnwmoths.biol.wwu.edu/browse/family-erebidae/subfamily-erebinae/tribe-catocalini/catocala/
• http://www.austinbug.com/noctuidae2.html

So far I've learned that annual populations of Catocala moths can vary because of grass fires or spraying for gypsy moths.