Dr. Moira FitzPatrick is an arachnologist and director at Natural History Museum in the Southern Africa country of Zimbabwe, where she has been collecting and researching spiders for many years.
She tells us about herself:
“During the Covid-19 lockdowns and stay- at-home restrictions, we created an iNaturalist 48-hour invertebrate bioblitz and the museum light trap was brought home.
“This initiated a monthly new moon moth project which is now in its 18th month and producing a wealth of data for Zimbabwean moths and other night creatures as a bug and spider hunt is always included in the evening activities.
“I was aware of National Moth Week last year, but still in restrictions, so very little was done to promote their importance. This year, I look forward to working with the team from the museum to create awareness for this important group.”
Welcome, Moira! We look forward to hearing about your museum’s and country’s NMW activities.