Goldenrod Stowaway Moth, and the time it can take to tell a pictorial story

A field painted gold with the showy inflorescences of Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima). Not Canada Goldenrod (S. canadensis), as nearly everyone calls this stuff. The tale of these two look-alike goldenrods will have to await another day, though.

Tall Goldenrod is a conspicuous and highly productive plant of old fields, meadows and other open well-drained habitats. As is typically the case with very common native plants, goldenrods spawn legions of interesting insects that have co-evolved with them, and host scores of others that dine on the goldenrod's abundant nectar and pollen or use the plants in other ways.

This is the other botanical ingredient necessary to foster Goldenrod Stowaways: plants in the genus Bidens. I took the above photo just two days ago, and it shows a fine tangle of Northern Tickseed-sunflower (Bidens coronata). At least some Bidens, this species included, are the only food plants for the interesting larvae of the Goldenrod Stowaway. Specialization on a single plant genus is common in the moth world.
Bidens are often known as beggar's-ticks and this is why. All of our species have seeds (technically, achenes) that are armed with stiff awns. Because of these awns, the seeds stick to passersby, sometimes in copious quantities. I took this photo of my jacket sleeve after a fall peregrination through a wet meadow a few years ago. Many plants use mammalian dispersal as a migratory tactic, and Bidens do this very well.Anyway, in a strange twist I was on the phone a few days ago with Chelsea Gottfried, my coauthor on an upcoming book on moths (more on that to come) and asked her to go outside to check on a plant that we used an image of in our book. The Northern Tickseed-sunflower was all around where she was checking, and she noticed the above caterpillars feeding on the flowering heads.