National Moth Week

Moths that Drive Cars

Elena — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:17:44 +0000

A silkmoth using a polystyrene ball to guide a vehicle.
(Photo from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2k1T2X7_Aw)

Moths can seriously do everything these days – not only can they hear extremely high frequency sounds, now they can drive!

Researchers at the University of Tokyo did an experiment to test the sensory and motor systems of silkmoths. They had the moths control small motorized vehicles to move in the direction of pheromones (chemicals that female moths use to attract males). The moths scrambled across the surface of a free-moving polystyrene ball, moving the ball, which, in turn, moved the vehicle.

When moths sense pheromones, they take action faster and more accurately than any machine. Researchers want to be able to make robots that can do this too, which might be useful when a robot has to instantly locate the source of a chemical leak or a hidden biological weapon.

You can read the full article here.

Greater Wax Moth Can Hear Highest Sound Frequency

Elena — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:34:23 +0000

Galleria mellonella
Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike

This article ran last week on LiveScience - The Greater Wax moth, a common Pyralid found in North America, Europe and Asia, can hear sounds up to 300 kilohertz – the highest known sound frequency. This is about 100 khz higher than bats can hear and our human ears can hear sounds up to only 20 kHz.

James Windmill, a bioacoustician at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, and his co-authors hypothesize that the moth’s ultrasonic hearing might help it avoid predators.

2012 NMW Supporter Bill Oehlke is back for 2013!

Elena — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:33:25 +0000

Antheraea polyphemus, a Saturniidae reared by Bill Oehlke

You may remember Bill Oehlke as a 2012 NMW supporter. Well, Bill has signed on again as a 2013 NMW too!

Bill grew up in New Jersey (the birthplace of National Moth Week!) and became interested in moths and butterflies over sixty years ago via an introduction by his father, Don Oehlke. Bill’s mothing set-up consists of a 175-watt mercury vapor bulb mounted onto the chimney of his house to call in female Saturniidae (giant silk moths), Sphingidae (hawkmoths) and Catocala (underwing moths).

For the last fifteen years, Bill has been actively engaged in selling livestock of Saturniidae and Sphingidae and has developed several comprehensive, public websites about about the Sphingidae of the Americas and North American Catocala moths. He also runs a small public Saturniidae site.

Bill’s main interest is in the Saturniidae and he has been assembling a private membership website called World’s Largest Saturniidae Site where over 1500 different worldwide Saturniidae species are depicted. Here, he records ranges, flight times, wingspans, larval food plants, rearing hints, and keeps country checklists for most countries of the world along with over 10,000 images of Saturniidae moths.

He also has a private membership site called Caterpillars Too! covering butterflies and their larvae from Canada and the United States.

NMW Partner – Vermont Atlas of Life

Elena — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:29:13 +0000

National Moth Week is now partnering with the Vermont Atlas of Life, a group dedicated to cataloguing biodiversity in the Green Mountain State.

Here’s what the group is about (from their page):

“It started with a simple question. How many species occur in Vermont? You’d think we’d know this for a small state steeped in a rich tradition of naturalists dating back to Zadock Thompson and his seminal 1842 work on the natural history of Vermont. But, the simple answer was, no one really knew.

We do know how many species there are of some of the popular taxonomic groups like birds (currently 382) and mammals (58). But how many invertebrates are there in Vermont? A back-of-the-envelope estimate puts the number at just over 21,400 species! There are about 2,150 species of plants, with approximately 1,400 native plants. Not including protists, bacteria or viruses, we humans share Vermont with at least 26,000 to 45,000 species, although no one knows for sure just how many.

The list continues to grow as we discover new native and introduced species across the state. For example, citizen naturalists helped the Vermont Butterfly Survey (2002-2007) discover 12 new butterflies in the state, in the process creating a conservation watch list based on our newfound knowledge. We don’t have to go far to discover new and surprising species. A new plant, never before described to science, was recently discovered in the Green Mountains.

Join our growing community of citizen naturalists from around the Green Mountain State in discovering and sharing observations of Vermont life. Your observations can be turned into research-grade, citizen science data that will help us discover, track and ultimately conserve our natural heritage.”

Meet Encyclopedia of Life, NMW’s Newest Partner

Elena — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:25:58 +0000

Deilephila porcellus
Image Credit:Stanislav Krejčík, BioLib.CZ. CC BY

Bena bicolorana
Image Credit:Stanislav Krejčík, BioLib.CZ. CC BY

NMW’s newest partner is the Encyclopedia of Life, a website dedicated to providing global access to knowledge about life on earth. EOL is a collaborative effort among scientists, citizen scientists and the general public to share millions of pages of information and multimedia about species, including moths! NMW participants can share photos of moths from their events with EOL’s Flickr Group or through one of the NMW partners that are already contributors to EOL (iNaturalist and the Moth Photographers Group).

EOL has also created a fun Moth Memory Game. Check it out!

We’re excited to have EOL on board with NMW 2013!

Meet NMW Sponsor HEXAPODA

Elena — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:16:34 +0000

HEXAPODA is a brand new collection of nature-related artwork from multi-medium artist Mielle Harvey. Launched in 2012, the collection extends Harvey’s lifelong fascination with nature and insects.

Sphinx Moth
Brooch or Pendant

As a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Harvey unsurprisingly approaches her work from a fine art perspective. This led to development of her signature ‘wearable sculpture’ aesthetic which features throughout the HEXAPODA jewelry line.

Tiger Moth cuff links

Although HEXAPODA provides a means to bring her work to a wider audience, Harvey also wants to use the communicative power of jewelry to raise awareness about the importance of insects in our everyday lives.

Sphinx Pupa earrings

HEXAPODA purposely transforms the traditional idea of creating jewelry from valuable materials into creating valuable insects as jewelry. The message and intent behind this philosophy is clear; the more we value something, the greater the likelihood we’ll take care of it.

This simple idea packs a powerful message with the HEXAPODA items providing a great way to share it with others.

Underwing brooch or pendant

In addition to simply creating a message, Harvey also plans to partner with individuals, groups and organizations involved in insect awareness and donate a proportion of HEXAPODA proceeds toward financing these initiatives.

All items in the HEXAPODA collection are individually handmade in Harvey’s studio in Providence, Rhode Island.

NMW’s Newest Partner – Biodiversity Bhutan

Elena — Mon, 06 May 2013 02:00:40 +0000

Eucyclodes gavissima

We’re pleased to introduce NMW’s newest international partner: Biodiversity Bhutan. Follow the link to visit (and like!) their facebook page.

Callambulyx poecilus

BioDiversity Bhutan (established 2012), is a Citizen Science project initiated by the Department of Science at Mendrelgang Middle Secondary School in Tsirang, Bhutan under the supervision of Mr. Irungbam Jatishwor Singh. The Biodiversity Bhutan project aims to:

Actias parasinensis

1. Educate students about butterflies and moths.

2. Understand the behavior and ecology of butterflies and moths.

3. Educate students about the importance of Lepidoptera and the relationship of butterflies and moths with our surrounding environment.

4. Document the local diversity of butterflies and moths.

Chrysocraspeda sp.

Through this Citizen Science Project so far, 120 butterflies and 220 moth species were recorded from Mendrelgang comprising few interesting spotting of butterflies namely, Apatura sordida, Elymnias malelas, Acraea issoria, Athyma ranga ranga, Catapacilma major, Heliophorus brahma. Moths seen by the group include Actias parasinensis (pictured at left), Saturnia cidosa, Pergesa acteus, Callambulyx poecilus (pictured at left), Lyssa zampa, Eucyclodes gavissima (pictured at left), Iotaphora iridicolor, Argina argus.

Meet NMW’s Newest Partner – The Nizhny Novgorod Branch of the Russian Entomological Society

Elena — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:14:56 +0000

NMW has become a truly global event, and we’re welcoming new international partners weekly. This week we’re proud to introduce our newest partner: the Moth Study Group of the Nizhny Novgorod Branch of the Russian Entomological Society.

Preparation for night trapping in Nizhny Novgorod Province (L to R): Dmitry Pozhogin, Stanislav Korb, Alexander Zatakovoy.

The group has 4 members:

Stanislav Korb: A long-time butterfly collector, Stan has participated in many collecting trips in the ex-USSR, the Ural mountains, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kirghizstan. He has over 100 published papers about butterflies and about 10 papers about moths and micromoths.

Dmitry Pozhogin: A long-time moth collector, Dmitry has participated in collecting trips in Vietnam, Kambodia, Tunisia, Ceylon, and of course many parts of the ex-USSR. Dmitry has one butterfly subspecies named after him.

Alexander Zatakovoy: A long-time moth collector, Alexander has participated in collecting trips in many parts of Russia: Atlai, Polar Urals, Caucasus etc.

Andrey Shaposhnikov: A long-time moth collector, Andrey has participated in collecting trips in many countries of the ex-USSR, including Kirghizstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. He has one blue butterfly subspecies and one Parnassius species named after him.

Participants of 2009 Kirghizstan expedition, Dolon Pass in Inner Tian-Shan (L to R): Dmitry Pozhogin, Natalia Storozhenko, Stanislav Korb, Andrey Shaposhnikov.

Participants of 2010 South Kazakhstan expedition, Boro-Khoro Mountains near Sary-Bel (L to R): Petr Egorov, Dmitry Pozhogin, Stanislav Korb, Denis Potanin, Anna Potanina, Andrey Shaposhnikov, Aleksey Tsilin.

Over the last 4 years the group has run 7 moth study expeditions to

Kirghizstan – June & July 2009
South Russia (Astrakhan, Saratov & Volgograd Provinces) – April & May 2010
South Kazakhstan – June & July 2010, April & May 2011
Tajikistan – June & July 2011, July 2012
Turkey – June 2012

On these expeditions they’ve encountered many interesting moths and have published their findings in Entomologist’s Gazette, Atalanta, and Eversmannia. If you can read Russian, you can check out the Eversmannia paper here.

The group is currently preparing a paper about Noctuidae moths of the Nizhny Novgorod Province and about Noctuidae moths of South Kazakhstan.

Participants of 2011 South Kazakhstan expedition, somewhere in South Kazakhstaniad deserts between Charyn and Ili rivers (L to R): The group malacologist , Petr Egorov, Sergey Titov, Bogdaulet Taranov, Rustem Kadyrbekov, Svyatoslav Knyazev, our driver, Stanislav Korb

This year, the group plans to return to Middle Asia to collect some more material. They’re hoping to discover some new and interesting moths.

Message from our new partners: “Good luck to everybody, and especially to people who are interested in moths: our Planet is still unexplored, guys, and we will for sure find something very interesting ”

Collecting micromoths in Saratov Province in 2010 by Stanislav Korb

Meet our New NMW Team Member – Welcome Sandy Lanman!

Elena — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:33:32 +0000

As NMW expands, we’re adding a new member to our team – welcome Sandy!

Sandra Lanman has worked as a writer and communicator since the 1970s. A New York City native, she began her career as a print journalist with The Home News in New Brunswick, where she won awards for opinion and creative writing, and for reporting on health and medical issues. Sandy moved into public relations in the late 1980s, working successively in the arts, public broadcasting and higher education. She helped Crossroads Theatre Company of New Brunswick achieve national and international visibility, served as director of communications for New Jersey Network, and handled high-profile projects for Rutgers University as director of media relations, including the visit of the Dalai Lama in 2005. She has won more than a dozen state and national awards for her writing, reporting, and public relations campaigns. In East Brunswick, Sandy led the successful community-wide effort to establish school-age childcare, was an original member of the East Brunswick Education Foundation, and produced and hosted EB People on EBTV. Sandy is president of Lanman Communications LLC and volunteers her services with the Friends of EBEC. She also is board secretary for Elijah’s Promise in New Brunswick. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Douglass College and master’s in communication and information studies from the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers. Sandy has hiked many national parks and loves photographing butterflies and moths. She is delighted to contribute to this important citizen science project.

NMW Flickr Group

Elena — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:08:59 +0000

Lots of us love spending our free time browsing pictures of moths on the internet.

Flickr has some great moth photography groups out there but we wanted to make sure everyone knows about our very own NMW flickr page. If you’ve got a flickr account, definitely join our group and share your images.

Rosy Maple Moth
(c) Jim Petranka