Curious assembly of moths

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svejkovat Grand Haven, MI Jul 19, 2010

Each year, in the middle of July, these moths seem strangely attracted to the grille of my truck for a few days. They collect nowhere else in the entire yard and sometimes as many as a dozen will be fluttering in and out of the grille, never lighting on anything or appearing to interact with one another. There is a strong sweet smell of antifreeze (but no leaks) around the grille on a hot day. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this behavior?
It's a bad picture, but they would just not cooperate by getting together for a group shot.

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suunto Sinks Grove, WV Jul 19, 2010

There is no way to make a positive i.d. from this image, but as the two moths whose antennae are visible appear to be males, perhaps some chemical in the coolant mixture mimics the sex pheromone for this species. Another possibility is that moths simply were attracted by something sweet/fermented in the mixture (seehttp://tinyurl.com/23emwrs), but if that were the case, I would expect to see an assemblage of several species.

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svejkovat Grand Haven, MI Jul 19, 2010

would you like me to capture and get a close up of one?

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svejkovat Grand Haven, MI Jul 19, 2010

I sacrificed one for the sake of science. May his life not have been in vain......

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svejkovat Grand Haven, MI Jul 19, 2010

Closer....

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svejkovat Grand Haven, MI Jul 19, 2010

MS Paint just sucks. I tried cropping the image but it just made it almost unviewable

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suunto Sinks Grove, WV Jul 20, 2010

About all that I can say her is that this/these moth(s) are in the superfamily Noctuoidea, a very large grouping. Members of this superfamily recently have undergone taxonomic revisions, and I am uncertain now just where ones like these would be placed. It might help if you could find and photograph one that has its wings scales more intact (your image size and resolution otherwise were satisfactory).

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crissyr Fayetteville, AR(Zone 7b) Jul 20, 2010

You should use Picasa, you can do anything you want to a picture in there.

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