To register to participate in National Moth Week click here

What’s the fuss about citizen science?

What’s the fuss about citizen science?

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A total of 135 species of moths were identified, including 4 new for the High Park Moth Study, bringing the study’s all-time total to 1028 species! This citizen science project began in 2016 and broke through the 1000 species mark earlier this season. For more about the study, see Meet the Mothia, in the Toronto Star.

This year’s moth night also brought out a good variety of other insects, particularly leafhoppers and small beetles.

High Park, Toronto is a large urban park (161 ha, about 400 acres) with diverse habitats including a globally rare black oak savannah. For more information about the park see highparknature.org. Our public Moth Night event has been held annually for about two decades in partnership with the Toronto Entomologists’ Association, the High Park Nature Centre, High Park Nature and more recently the High Park Moth Study group. We look forward to hosting another public event next year.

So why register your moth “event” for National Moth Week. What is the significance?

In short – every single observation counts, by contributing to the “bigger picture”.

How??

Citizen science is not new – collection of moth data and bird data from observers in the United Kingdom has taken place for several hundred years. The internet has revolutionized the process, though, through citizen science portals / apps that make it easier than it has ever been to photograph an observation and submit it, along with the location and time-stamp, to a portal for collating biological data. These collated data are then checked for accuracy, usually by researchers, or by dedicated volunteers, and once verified, can become part of a project run by researchers looking at (e.g.) changes in species distribution over time, changes in species phenology (e.g. when they occur and in what life stage they occur, or when they flower, or something like when the first cuckoo call of spring happens each year). Only by aggregating data from many sources can projects tackle big (regional, national, international or global) issues, such as how species are responding to changes in the landscape globally.

Let me give you one example that I have been involved with. I run a number of recording projects on iNaturalist, one of which is for moths that are found in Hong Kong. Data is provided by many people, some of whom contribute thousands of observations, some contribute just a few observations. All together, the distribution and coverage is far better than I could ever achieve on my own, and gives me a much better idea about _which_ species should receive greater attention for conservation action. I teamed up with academics from The University of Hong Kong to look at other questions, one of which was “is climate change impacting moths in Hong Kong”, to which the answer is “probably” – with different species responding in different, sometimes unexpected ways. Some species were shifting their distribution uphill, a few the other way, some not shifting significantly at all and some shifting their distribution northwards, i.e. tropical species arriving in subtropical Hong Kong in the last few decades, just as is happening with many species shifting distributions elsewhere in the world.

Are “common” species important ?

Absolutely. Have you ever heard of the Passenger Pigeon? – it was North America’s commonest bird species in the 1890s, yet by 1930 it was extinct (gone for ever). We do not know exactly what the future holds for any species on Earth, including us, Homo sapiens. But we cannot assume that just because a species is common it is not vulnerable to extinction.

So records of common moth species, the ones that are familiar to the moth recorders and researchers, are _really_ important, just as records of currently rare moth species are important. Thus everyone’s contribution to National Moth Week, whether just one or two moths from a backyard light or chanced upon in the garden, or of hundreds of moths seen in an all night mothing session, all go to building a bigger picture of how moths are distributed (spatially and in abundance) now – and can be compared in years to come. Every observation counts.

If you thought it’s not important to register with NMW, please reconsider. Your data is meaningful. If you haven’t used a citizen science portal before, there’s a first time for everyone. Yes, it can seem scary and overwhelming, but these apps have real people, amateur naturalists, professional biologists, academics, kids, using them, supporting newcomers and “old pros” alike! You will be made welcome, and there are people in the iNaturalist community who will help if you need help. A good place to start is the “getting started” page.

Now go and register – get outside and mothing (by day or night) in your backyard and enjoy your contribution and participation into and with the global community. Please.

—

Dr. Roger C. KENDRICK lives and works in Hong Kong. He is a Natioanl Moth Week team member.

Carl Barrentine, participants since 2013 and National Moth Week team member, is documenting moth species flying in his backyard. Carl will share his methods and findings in a series of daily videos during National Moth Week 2020.

Contributing to National Moth Week with iNaturalist is simple:

Download the free iNaturalist app, photograph and make a separate observation for each moth, check that the location and date are correct, and identify each as precisely as you can. It’s ok if you can just get to family.

All moths observed between July 18 – 26 will be automatically included!

Be sure to join the National Moth Week 2020 project as well: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/national-moth-week-2020

From Project Noah:

Yesterday we discussed the ability of some tiger moth species to jam bat sonar. Some tiger moths are also very chemically defended. Some moths may sequester toxic plant chemicals, while others break down toxic chemicals found in their host plants and create new toxins for defense. Many organisms that are chemically defended also have aposematic, or warning coloration to indicate to predators that they are chemically defended.

The Cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobeae) is a moth which is chemically defended and aposematically colored, meaning it has warning coloration. It is native to Europe but was introduced in Oregon where is has been a successful biocontrol agent in the management of the invasive tansy ragwort.

National Moth Week is from July 22-30. Are you participating? Please register a public or private event here: http://nationalmothweek.org/register-a-nmw-event-2017/, especially if your country or region isn’t on the map yet!

Don’t forget to submit photos of moths you spot here!

http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8841449

Read more about efforts to use the Cinnabar moth to control the invasive tansy ragwort here.

In honor of this year’s focus on tiger moths, our partner, citizen science website Project Noah, will be featuring a fun fact about the tiger moths (Erebidae: Arctiinae) during National Moth Week.

From Project Noah:

Moths are constantly under the threat of predation by bats, and have evolved defenses to avoid this. Some tiger moths, such as this beautiful Bertholdia trigona, can emit clicking sounds to jam the sonar of bats, allowing them to disappear long enough to escape predation (Corcoran et al. 2011). The clicks are emitted from structures called tymbal organs.

National Moth Week is from July 22-30. Are you participating? Please register a public or private event here: http://nationalmothweek.org/register-a-nmw-event-2017/, especially if your country or region isn’t on the map yet!

Don’t forget to submit photos of moths you spot here!

http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8841449

Read more about the Corcoran et al. study referenced above here.