Moths in Massachusetts: What's Flying Tonight

In Massachusetts, the moths flying right now depend heavily on the month. In midsummer your porch light draws geometrids like Macaria pustularia, lichen-feeding Hypoprepia fucosa, and the invasive Spongy Moth (Lymantria dispar), along with tiny grass moths such as Microcrambus elegans and Crambus agitatellus. By late May the showy pink-and-yellow Rosy Maple Moth (Dryocampa rubicunda) and the Eastern Tent Caterpillar Moth (Malacosoma americana) appear, and by September you'll trade them for fluttering Campaea perlata, the big orange Noctua pronuba, and the fuzzy Hickory Tussock Moth (Lophocampa caryae).

What's flying right now in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has thousands of moth species across the year, and the cast turns over fast between spring, midsummer, and fall. To see tonight's most likely flyers for your exact town, run the live predictor - it pulls from open GBIF records for your latitude, longitude, and date.

Summer (July) moths in Massachusetts

Midsummer is peak diversity. Common July visitors to lights here include:

• Macaria pustularia and Tortricidia flexuosa - small, pale geometrid-style moths that rest flat on the sheet
• Spongy Moth (Lymantria dispar) - an introduced, invasive defoliator; the brown males flutter by day and night in outbreak years. Worth knowing rather than admiring.
• Hypoprepia fucosa (Painted Lichen Moth) - a slim, pink-and-gray lichen moth
• Microcrambus elegans and Crambus agitatellus - the little snout-nosed "grass-veneer" moths that scatter when you walk a lawn at dusk
• Panopoda rufimargo and Hypena scabra - common owlet moths

Spring (May) moths in Massachusetts

Late spring is when the giant silk moths show up. The standout is the Rosy Maple Moth (Dryocampa rubicunda), a small saturniid in cotton-candy pink and yellow. Like all giant silk moths, the adult has no working mouthparts - it never feeds and lives only a week or two to mate, so a sighting is a brief gift. You'll also see the Eastern Tent Caterpillar Moth (Malacosoma americana), whose webby tents draped on cherry and apple branches you may have noticed earlier in spring, plus the angular Eutrapela clemataria.

Fall (September) moths in Massachusetts

By September the silk moths are gone and the autumn owlets and tussocks take over: the ghostly green-white Campaea perlata, the leaf-mimicking Machimia tentoriferella, and the large, invasive Noctua pronuba (Large Yellow Underwing). You'll also meet Pyrrharctia isabella - the Isabella Tiger Moth, whose caterpillar is the famous "woolly bear" - and the Hickory Tussock Moth (Lophocampa caryae). A note on that last one: its fuzzy black-and-white caterpillar has irritating hairs, so look but don't handle.

Local mothing tips

• UV and mercury-vapor lights pull far more moths than white LED porch bulbs. Moths come to short-wavelength light because it scrambles their flight orientation, not because they're chasing it.
• A white sheet behind the light gives them a place to land where you can see them.
• Warm, still, humid, moonless nights are best. Check the good-night-for-moths guide before you set up.
• New to this? Start with mothing for beginners.
• National Moth Week runs July 18-26, 2026 - prime timing for Massachusetts.

Browse other states from the moth index, or compare with a neighbor like New Hampshire.