Blessed are the summer days, for they are now behind us. – Book of Autumn 1:1
This year proved an unusual one since fall began after the Bluffton Free Street Fair concluded. Street Fair displayed a full moon on opening night, but fall arrived on Sunday after the vendors departed, leaving behind nothing but grease spots on the pavement.
Angelkeep had one other summertime bit of excitement. Perhaps it failed to equal the thrill of a “Rock-O-Plane” amusement ride. It seemed miniscule against a Street Fair powdered-sugar elephant ear.
It appeared, only to disappear about as fast as the live mouse found a numbered hole when dumped into the center of the Mouse Game’s revolving cage of fear surrounded shoulder-to-shoulder with gamblers in search of a tiny stuffed animal. (Well, I guess we’ll have to wait for next year to see that again.)
Angelkeep encountered Microcrambus elegans.
If the name seems unknown that’s quite reasonable. Angelkeep had absolutely no idea of what it viewed when it suddenly flew in and landed on a volunteer weed allowed to grow in a patio pot after flower seeds failed to germinate.
An unknown moth, known to be a moth due to its feathery antennae, landed on the weed’s strong stem. The pot’s surprise flower proved to be pokeweed. It’s a natural invasive weed growing elsewhere at Angelkeep to a five foot height. It’s interesting, colorful, but useless. Its destruction occurred after the moth visit. That moth made the earlier preservation of the pokeweed worthwhile.
Angelkeep research failed to identify the moth. Facebook’s Pictorial Indiana group came to the rescue. Someone had an app for that.
Microcrambus elegans was discovered 164 years prior (1860) to Angelkeep’s detection. The first describer of this moth in the Crambidea family came from James Brackenridge Clemens. That name caught the attention of Angelkeep…Clemens.
James being genealogically related to the Angelkeep-known Samuel Clemens could not be discovered. Some knew Samuel better as his pseudonym Mark Twain. What’s in a name — there’s plenty in a name. Mark Twain proved more memorable than Mr. Clemens.
The famous writer had a daughter who changed her name. Concert singer, Clara Langhorne Clemens, married a second time after losing her first spouse by death. Clara’s elongated remarriage name became a handful, or mouthful. Clara Langhorne Clemens-Gabrilowitsch-Samossoud. Never the Twain did she meet.
The moth with the elongated name did not mimic in appearance to the length of the name J. B. Clemens created. A macrophotograph taken of Angelkeep’s moth visitor showed it only about half an inch in length. At the time, while temporarily resting on the vertical stem of the weed, the moth had wings pulled tight to its body. That’s not a normal resting position of a moth. More often they rest with wings spread. To Angelkeep’s good fortune, Wikipedia’s own photograph of the same moth looked exactly like the local picture captured, verification assurance.
On July 6, the tiny moth’s beautiful wing markings and feather antenna reminded Angelkeep of long ago studies of Native American Kachina dolls. Colors were limited to a golden ochre, umber, a gold almost metallic, and larger areas of various whites. All but the two forelegs were hidden behind wings that looked more like a ceremonial cape with a monstrous Kachina-like headdress. Speckles, zig-zags, lines, and other design features seemed Navajo, as if created by that people group rather than by God.
Wiki measured them averaging 13mm. That’s half an inch in Americanese.
The north’s group of Microcrambus elegans moth appeared as adults from June to August. Sadly the one-time spotting of this moth will not be repeated this year. The moth had a much longer span of life in the south, March to October. The south received multiple generations of the moth within each year. Only one generation appeared per year in the north and at Angelkeep. It became one lucky observation, perhaps one of a lifetime.
What’s in a name? Commonly it is called the elegant grass-veneer moth. It seems the larvae enjoy dining on grasses, some of which are typically found in lawns. It is elegant by design.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
