I caught sight of this guy on my Agastache.
I caught sight of this guy on my Agastache, and now that I have a new camera I was – for the first time in four years up here – able to get some decent images of an insect. The cross-like pattern on the back of this moth means that it’s easy to find on the internet – “moth with cross on back” will do it. It’s a Clymene moth, Haploa clymene. My source notes that it uses the Eupatorium genus as a host – it would make sense then that it would appear at my garden, because I’ve added three species of Eupatorium here – maculatum, fistulosum, and coelestinum – and two others have colonized my property now that I’ve made a clearing for them (rugosum and perfoliatum). Here it’s enjoying the sweet fragrance of an Agastache foeniculum, an excellent butterfly/moth plant. The pattern on his back is gorgeous, and reminds me just as much of a Franciscan habit as of a cross. 
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