little visitor

This little lady or gent was clinging to my screen door this morning.  I wish I could be more specific, but I'm not a moth-sexer, so I'm afraid we're out of luck. Wow. Moth-sexer just sounds sooooo wrong. I probably could have just said lepidopterist and sounded like a normal person. Sheesh. 

OK, so I did a tiny bit of research. I think it might be a Catocala parta (also known as Mother Underwing) and I think it might be a female. When it flew from the screen door to my very dusty picture window, it started vibrating...much to Matilda's delight. A chorus of tiny meows immediately followed the sighting. 

Oh, I learned a new word pairing as a result of this sighting! One of the websites referred to the underside of the moth as verso. Thus I stumbled upon: recto & verso.

Recto: The right-hand page (or front side) of a book, manuscript, or codex

Verso: The left-hand page (or back side) of a book, manuscript, or codex

I love new words.