I found this electra buckmoth (Hemileuca electra) floating motionless in a bucket of water that I set out for wildlife to drink from.

This large and colorful moth accidentally ended up in one of the animal’s water buckets sometime after dark last night. I saw it floating in there motionless through the window and assumed it had drowned, so I didn’t act to remove it immediately since in the darkness I thought it was a plain brown and gray moth anyway. It was only some hours later that I went to scoop it out and saw that it was actually a very attractive black, white, and orange moth with eyespots on the forewings. Black dots also occupy both sides of the hindwings.

Underside of the electra buckmoth. Sexes are similar in appearance so I don’t know whether this one is male or female. The body is fuzzy and red on the back of the thorax and abdomen, with the abdomen being  banded with black and white beneath.

Thinking that I would want to take a photo of it the next day, I laid it out on the concrete floor inside to dry out. Imagine my surprise later when I went to reposition it for a portrait and found it very much alive, despite its hours of immersion. The moth wasn’t exactly in good shape however, and while it fluttered its wings it appeared to be unable to fly. I assume its watery tenure may well have done enough damage to make the insect unable to conduct whatever is left of its short lifespan. I set it on one of my houseplants intending to let it rest there and recover further. If it managed to fly off then I would be happy for it. If not, then I supposed it would otherwise simply die inside the house. Water hazards are a thing for insects.

The moth’s wingspan is about 2.5 to 3 inches (6.3 to 7.5 cm) when fully spread out. The delicate antenna structure is beautiful.

It turns out that this is an electra buckmoth (Hemileuca electra), whose larval host plant in my region of Arizona is flattop buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum). In the California and Baja California portions of their range, the larvae feed upon other buckwheat species. Adult moths do not feed. The electra buckmoth lives across most of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts from southwestern Utah and southern Nevada to southeastern Arizona, and westward into the chaparral plant communities of California and the Baja Peninsula all the way to the Pacific Ocean. There is a significant variability in their appearance across their various desert and chaparral plant community ranges, with some 5 or 6 different subspecies being identified. Some of those subspecies are a much paler orange color and have less black and more white on the forewings, while others are mostly black and orange with very little white patching. This one appears intermediate in gradation. What a beautiful insect.  

The moth after the spider bit it: Still alive, but fatally wounded.

I set the moth into my potted Dendrobium ‘Hibiki’ hybrid orchid. It crawled off for some reason and was promptly attacked by a fairly large, black, 1.25 inch-long crevice spider (Kukulcania sp) that I allow to inhabit the cleft between my countertop and my wall. The spider darted back into hiding before I was able to take this photo, but since the moth had already been bitten, it was too late. I left it there and when I looked again about 20 minutes later the moth was gone, probably withdrawn into the spider’s web to be eaten at leisure.

Interestingly, this is the same exact crevice where Nightcrawler, my former “pet” desert night lizard (Xantusia vigilis), used to hang out and eat bugs drawn to the nearby onyx light. The lamp’s basal corner is visible in the photo. But Nightcrawler disappeared about three years ago after living with me for two years before that. The crevice was not vacant for long, and now the spider has lived there for two years or so. Obviously, it’s a hot piece of real estate. Location, location, location!

One final thought is that I admit that the electra buckmoth’s relative beauty and rarity means I would have acted immediately upon originally noticing it to save it, had I paid more attention. Beauty bias in humans works against plain, brown moths and for strikingly colored ones, which is actually true for most creatures. We have a strong preference for the cute, the large, and the beautiful over the dull, the small, and the ordinary. That said, the moth’s colorful attire meant nothing to the crevice spider, and it was perfunctorily consumed. While that outcome honestly wasn’t my intent when I put the moth into the orchid, this is the way of nature regardless. Cycle of life type stuff, right?