National Moth Week

Meet NMW supporter Teá Kesting-Handly

Elena — Sat, 25 May 2013 18:59:58 +0000

New NMW supporter Tea Kesting-Handly

NMW’s newest supporter is Teá Kesting-Handly. Teá runs a butterfly identification website and rearing blog highlighting the life cycles of some butterflies and moths.

Promethea silkmoth reared by Tea

Teá has been studying butterflies and moths for about 6 years and has published a paper in Invertebrates Magazine on the genetics of Monarch butterflies. She’s been doing a moth research project with the National Park Service on the Cape Cod National Seashore, monitoring species of Saturniid and Sphingid moths for population decline and preventative measures. Teá’s work specializes in keeping Saturniid moth populations stable and working on rehabilitation projects for populations in decline.

Automeris io photo by Tea Kesting-Handly

Some More Info on NMW Partner Moth Night – UK

Elena — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:40:06 +0000

Mark Tunmore of Moth Night – UK

Work is continuing on the UK Moth Night www.mothnight.info, which this year takes place on 8-10 August with the theme of tiger moths. The event has been run annually by Atropos (the UK journal for butterfly, moth and dragonfly enthusiasts) since 1999, now in association with Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Each year a different theme is chosen and moth enthusiasts are encouraged to go out and gather as much moth data as possible, be this relevant to the theme or their own interests, and to submit their records online to produce a snapshot of what is flying in the UK at the time. Over the years the event has produced a huge amount of valuable data which has helped to increase knowledge of species distribution; this has included new species for Britain, new county records and numerous rare vagrants.

Garden tiger moth – Arctia caja
Photo via Wikimedia commons

Tiger moths are a particular interesting group in the UK and appear to be responding to environmental conditions in different ways. The Garden Tiger (Arctia caja) has decreased dramatically in Britain (92% over 40 years), whilst the Jersey Tiger (Euplagia quadripunctaria) is undergoing a significant expansion of range, especially within the London area. The results of Moth Night 2012 will be published in the journal Atropos www.atropos.info shortly.

Jersey tiger moth – Euplagia quadripunctaria
Photo via Wikimedia commons

Ridiculously Cute Moths

Elena — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:40:48 +0000

Venezuelan Poodle Moth (c) Dr. Arthur Anker

Moths are often considered butterflies’ ugly cousins and few insects are generally portrayed as “cute”.

That’s why it’s refreshing to see lists like this one from the website TheFW (despite the somewhat questionable grammar) featuring 17 “ridiculously cute” moths.

The usual suspects populate the list - Io, Polyphemus, Rosy Maple – but it also includes some unexpected species such as the Lygodium spider moth and the Beautiful wood nymph.

Nice to see moths getting some “cuteness” points.

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 supporter 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.