How to identify the Virginia Ctenucha
At rest the Virginia Ctenucha looks deceptively plain, with narrow smoky gray to brownish wings, but the body gives it away: a brilliant iridescent blue or blue-black abdomen and thorax that catches the light, topped by a contrasting orange or orange-red head and shoulders. Wingspan is about 1.6 to 2 inches. The combination of dull wings over a shining metallic body is the key field mark. In flight during the day it can be taken for a wasp, which is the point, since the look discourages predators.
Where it lives
This is a northern, grassland-edge moth. Open GBIF records place the most sightings in New York, Vermont, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin, across meadows, old fields, prairies, roadsides, and damp grassy clearings where its host grasses and sedges grow. It is widespread through the Northeast, upper Midwest, and adjacent Canada.
When it flies
Virginia Ctenucha is a single-brood, early-summer moth in most of its range, with activity peaking in June and July. Because it is largely day-flying, you are most likely to encounter it in sunshine visiting flowers like milkweed, dogbane, and goldenrod rather than at a night light.
Caterpillar and host plants
The caterpillar is hairy and tufted in pale yellow and black, and unlike many moths it feeds on grasses, sedges, and irises rather than tree leaves. Larvae feed in summer and the species overwinters as a partly grown caterpillar, resuming feeding and pupating in spring before the early-summer adults emerge. As a tiger moth relative, it carries the family's general theme of unpalatability, reinforced by its wasp-like daytime appearance.
How to see one at night
The Virginia Ctenucha is primarily day-active, so the most reliable way to see one is to walk sunny meadows and roadside flower patches in June and July and check blooms for nectaring adults. It can occasionally turn up at lights, so if you run a sheet, use a UV or mercury-vapor lamp on a warm, calm night, since short-wavelength light disrupts moth flight orientation and outdraws white LEDs. But for this species, daytime flower-watching beats the blacklight. To plan an outing, check what is likely flying near you tonight or read our beginner's guide to mothing.
Keep in mind this site does not identify a moth from your photo. It predicts likely species by location and date from open records. For photo ID, try iNaturalist or Seek, BugGuide, the Moth Photographers Group, or BAMONA.