There's a moth that's fairly common here, at least it frequently spends the day on my porch, where I can easily see it. It always rests with its wings closed, and I could never figure out what it was. Its body has a strange look to it!

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My porch is shady, so the flash went off when I took the picture, which frightened the moth into moving. It landed on a post with its wings opened enough that I could see the identifying underwing coloring/design. This one was orangish yellow below, so I knew it was an underwing. I looked through my four moth books and couldn't find it. So then I went to the Moth Photographer's Group website created by MS State University, and by looking at the patterns on the wings, was able to ID it tentatively as C. grynea - finally! Most of my books don't even show the adult moth, and those that do, don't show a close-up enough picture of Catocala wings to see the pattern details. Then I Googled Catocala grynea and found pictures showing the strange body shape on the moth with its wings folded - the final proof of its identity!

I highly recommend the Moth Photographer's Group website!

Sherry