Ian sent us this blog post from Hickatee Cottages, Southern Belize: I thought that this was a fun title and a good excuse to post images of some of National Moth Week’s spotlighted family, Sphingidae, as well as some of the critters that use moths as their hosts for part of their lifecycle – in this case the family Erythraeidae.
Why moths at Hickatee?
It all began with National Moth Week 2013, when we started to take a serious interest in the moths around our guesthouse grounds. That interest has grown into something of an obsession and we are now on a quest to record the moth species that we see here, just outside Punta Gorda Town in Southern Belize.
We soon realized that although we had images of a few hundred moths (421 different moths from NMW 2014) we were only able to identify a small number of these. Mathew Barnes’ excellent site http://www.mbarnes.force9.co.uk/belizemoths/belizehome.htm provided IDs for many of the early species but, as time went on and our collection of images grew, we now have images of nearly 2000 different moths recorded at Hickatee with the majority yet to be identified.
We love to learn and to share, and have created a new website at http://www.moths-of-belize.com/. The site is our attempt to try and begin to categorise the moths seen here, and to provide an accessible record for others to use. The site is very much a work in progress, being updated with families and subfamilies added as time allows.
National Moth Week 2015
Hickatee Cottages, Southern Belize, will again be hosting a week-long series of moth events and offering discounts on accommodation to moth-ers for that week.
Saturday 18th and Saturday 25th, 6pm until late.
“Open House” at Hickatee for all moth-ers and bug-nerds
The Bar will be open and snacks provided. We will have a number of lights out but feel free to bring your own lights, sheets and favorite bait. 6pm till late!!! Everyone welcome.
Nights of Sunday 19th to Friday 24th inclusive, 6pm until late
for resident guests
We will be setting out light stations and bait every night for our resident guests, both enthusiastic bug-nerds and for those yet to be converted! Feel free to bring your own lights, sheets and favorite bait, or let us know your favourite bait recipe and we can make it up in advance and let it brew.
Contact Ian at ian@hickatee.com for more information and visit our website at www.hickatee.com