While hiking on Mt. Diablo yesterday, above Pine Canyon along a steep, grassy slope, I found this amazing moth, one of the tiny creatures who live all around us but go mostly unnoticed by us busy humans. I spotted him in the grass and had to pursue him after he flew off a few yards. At last, I persuaded him to sit on the tip of my finger and be photographed in the bright afternoon sunlight.
I’d never seen this type of moth before. It’s a male Adela trigrapha — the males, like in most moths, have longer antennae, which they use to locate females. And what a pair of antennae this guy’s got! They can be up to four times the length of the wings in this species.
Adela trigrapha males also dance in groups to impress females.
Steven E. F. Brown 