{"id":8072,"date":"2026-06-18T21:30:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=8072"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:27:11","slug":"2026-06-the-t-shaped-gillmeria-plume-moth-in-sweden-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2026-06-the-t-shaped-gillmeria-plume-moth-in-sweden-en\/","title":{"rendered":"The T-shaped gliders of the night: Photographing the delicate Hellinsia plume moth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Hellinsia<\/em> is a massive genus of plume moths (<em>Pterophoridae<\/em>), boasting over 340 species worldwide. They are famous for their unique, feather-like split wings and a signature T-shaped resting posture that resembles a tiny airplane. Most adults fly after dark, fluttering around in the twilight or being drawn to artificial outdoor lights. Their caterpillars have diverse lifestyles: depending on the species, some roll leaves while others act as stem borers. Most feed on specific host plants within the daisy family (Asteraceae), such as goldenrods (<em>Solidago<\/em>) and hawkweeds (<em>Hieracium<\/em>). During evening walks around Swedish campsites or taking rest breaks during my bicycle tour along the Baltic Sea in June 2026, I often noticed their erratic, ghostly flight patterns in the evening air. Approaching them without startling them proved exceptionally difficult, but patience paid off! On one occasion, I managed to sneak close enough to capture a few beautifully sharp photos that I&#8217;m truly proud of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hellinsia is a massive genus of plume moths (Pterophoridae), boasting over 340 species worldwide. They are famous for their unique, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,1],"tags":[],"countries":[63,76],"order-category":[60,357,49],"class_list":["post-8072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mimickry","category-phytophages-herbivores","countries-europe","countries-sweden","order-category-insects","order-category-insects-moths-and-butterflies","order-category-insects-moths-and-butterflies-plume-moths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8833,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8072\/revisions\/8833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8072"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=8072"},{"taxonomy":"order-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/order-category?post=8072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}