Dotted Gray

About the Dotted Gray

A small, pale geometer moth finely peppered with dark dots - the source of its name - the Dotted Gray is easy to overlook and easy to admire once you do. Soft gray and delicately speckled, it rests with its wings spread flat in the classic inchworm-moth pose, blending against bark, stone, and lichen.

Like other geometer moths, its caterpillars are the familiar loopers, or inchworms, that hunch and stretch their way along twigs; they feed on oak and other trees. The adults are night-flyers and come readily to lights after dark.

In Texas the Dotted Gray is found in woodlands and brushy areas across much of the state, quietly going about its life among the trees.

A note from behind the lens: moths at a porch light or a lit sheet are a whole world of subjects waiting after dark. Approach slowly so as not to spook it, use soft, even light or a diffused flash, and get square to those flat-spread wings to capture the fine dotted pattern.