333. Dyar's Looper Moth

Gabriola dyari, or Dyar's Looper Moth, is a moth in the family Geometridae and found from the Alaskan panhandle and British Columbia to California. The caterpillars feed on a variety of conifers, including Mountain Hemlock, Western Red Cedar, Silver Fir, Grand Fir, Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce and most often in our area, Douglas-fir and Western Hemlock. They are a medium -sized moth with a wingspan of 25–30 mm. The forewings are variable from one individual to the next, but usually brownish gray with black speckling and lines. The hindwings are uniformly brownish gray except for a dark thin terminal line, which here is often broken, and appears as a dashed line.  Adults in our area fly in late June throughout July.  Larvae are active from May to July, after overwintering as an egg. Pupation takes place in a cocoon on a twig in August. 

The larvae come in two forms, one is grey with white blotches and is a bird dropping mimic.  The second form is reddish with a tan head and with pale areas and this form mimics male conifer pollen cones.

Madam Berthe's Mouse Lemur from Kirindy, Madagascar is named for primatologist Berende Rakotosamimanana. It is the smallest primate in the world.

David Bowie Spider, Heteropoda davidbowie is named for the famous singer. Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo.

Dyar's Looper Moth is named for moth and mosquito expert, bigamist and recreational tunnel builder, H.G.Dyar Jr.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we ordered a book by Stephen B. Heard called “Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider- How Scientific Names Celebrate Adventurers, Heroes and Even a Few Scoundrels”. Heard is a great science storyteller and writes interesting tales about eponymously named organisms and the people whose names they bear. We were very excited when we saw David Bowie’s Spider in Sabah, Borneo and discovered we’d seen Madame Berthe’s Mouse Lemur in Kirindy, Madagascar, both species figure prominently in Heard’s book.
 
Gabriola dyari, would be right down Heard’s alley.  The genus name, Gabriola,  is from Gabriola Island, where the species was first discovered. There are five species in the genus, four in Mexico and this one. The species name, dyari,  is named for a prolific and colourful (more on that below) entomologist, Harrison Gray Dyar Jr. (1866-1929). Dyar named hundreds of species and genera of butterflies and moths.

Dyar did graduate work on Lepidoptera classification and later his Ph.D. on airbourne bacteria.  He married in a music teacher and had two children. He started his career as a bacteriologist but after two years took an Honorary Custodian position at the US National Museum; a position with no salary, living off of real estate and other investments.  While at the museum he coauthored a 4-volume treatise on Central American mosquitoes, an important topic during the construction of the Panama Canal, as they had recently been discovered to be vectors of several diseases.  

During this time Dyar came up with “Dyar’s Law” based on his observations of growth in head capsules of larval insects. He identified a geometric pattern of increase in the exoskeleton length and width relationships over progressive molting events that appeared to be completely predictable.   Around 1910 he was recognized for his work on the national collection of Lepidoptera and became salaried expert for the USDA.

Mid-career, Dyar was charged with bigamy having been married to a second person under an assumed name and fathering three sons. His first wife divorced him and he was dismissed from the USDA ”for conduct unbecoming a government employee”.  He later legally remarried and adopted the three boys.   

In 1924 a truck’s back wheels broke through some pavement in Washington D.C.. Upon investigation it was discovered that it had broken through the roof of a tile-lined tunnel. After some speculation in the press, Dyar admitted that he had yet another hobby building tunnels and had developed extensive labyrinths around at least two of the places he had lived. Some were up to 24 feet deep and equipped with electric lighting.
 
For more information on the life of Harrison Gray Dyar Jr. click here and here.

And if Stephen Heard is looking for material for a second volume on ”Adventurers, Heroes and Even a Few Scoundrels” that have lent their names to species, he may want to look at the person behind the name on Gabriola dayri, he appears to fall into all three categories.