Join Michael Sarill of Project Noah at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 14, for a virtual program about the
popular online global community of nature enthusiasts and its collaboration with National Moth Week,
which starts July 17.
Sponsored by the East Brunswick Public Library in partnership with the Friends of the East Brunswick
Environmental Commission (FriendsEBEC), the program will be available on Zoom and the library’s
Youtube channel. It is free and open to the public. Registration is suggested but not required. Go to
this link to register and find details on accessing the presentation.
Michael will lead aspiring citizen scientists through Project Noah’s Moths of the World mission, which
provides a platform for uploading and publishing photos, creating a personal nature journal and
learning about the natural world on projectnoah.org, as well as its social media platforms. He will also
walk the library through a new video created by Project Noah Nature School on how to go mothing.
He will be joined by Liti Haramaty of Friends EBEC and co-founder of National Moth Week, who will
discuss the upcoming 10th annual observance, how to register an event and how to navigate the newly
designed website and video library with tips and demonstrations of mothing.
National Moth Week shines a light on often unheralded moths, calling attention to their beauty,
extraordinary diversity and essential role in the natural world as pollinators and a food source for other
creatures. It will be observed July 17-25, marking its 10th year.
It was started by Haramaty and David Moskowitz of FriendsEBEC in 2012 and quickly became an
international citizen science project engaging people of all ages and abilities in observing and
documenting moths in their natural habitats in backyards, parks, neighborhoods and other outdoor
venues. Since its founding, public and private mothing events have been registered in all 50 states and
more than 90 countries around the world. (Register here)
Project Noah is an award-winning software platform designed to help people connect with the natural
world and learn about wildlife. It enables amateurs and professionals alike to create and share _________________________________________________________________________________________
National Moth Week (nationalmothweek.org) is a project of the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission,
a 501c3 organization • 9 Camelot Drive, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 • friendsebec.com
multimedia nature journals to collect important ecological data and help preserve global biodiversity.
Project Noah has been a partner organization of National Moth Week since 2012.
Michael Sarill leads product development and partnerships for Project Noah. He earned his bachelor’s
degree in philosophy from Brown University and completed the Beahrs Environmental Leadership
Program at UC Berkeley. He is passionate about wildlife and biodiversity conservation and is excited to
explore ways for people to live in harmony with nature. Prior to Project Noah, he built a wildlife game
called Baboon.
This program is part of the Option Green lecture series hosted by the East Brunswick Library in
partnership with FriendsEBEC.

#

Jacob Gorneau was 15 when he came to a moth night in East Brunswick, NJ, in 2013. He and his dad traveled more than 150 miles from upstate New York to meet the NMW team, who’d started the observance just a year earlier. By then, however, Jacob already was a valuable contributor to NMW’s success.

“I had learned about National Moth Week through a citizen science site, Project Noah, (an NMW partner organization) and was able to work as a liaison between Project Noah and NMW for its first year in 2012,” he said.

Jacob’s fascination with moths and the natural world began early. He was hooked after seeing a Black Witch moth on a family trip to Florida. “I couldn’t believe the moth was as large as the geckos near it! I think that was the first time that I became thoroughly enamored with moths.”

To further his interest in insects, he’d challenge himself to stay outside until he found something he’d never seen before. (Sounds like a great way to interest kids in nature.)

“What became clear quickly was how easy it was to see a new moth, spider or any other kind of arthropod,” he said. “The more I learned about how diverse arthropods are, the more I got interested!”

Jacob helped spread the word about NMW to other groups and events. His valuable and growing knowledge about moths helped NMW become more widely known. In 2013, he was invited to become the youngest member of the NMW team.

“I think National Moth Week is an important cause, because looking for moths is an activity for everyone, and learning more about them invites people to have a more open mind when it comes to other organisms – like snakes and spiders – that might be surrounded by a cloud of misconceptions,” he said.

“Mothing is great because all it requires is leaving an outside light on or having an inexpensive mothing setup, and nature will come to you. A lot of common misunderstandings about moths and other arthropods come from a place of fear, and I think the best tool against this fear is education. The outdoors is a great classroom”

This spring, Jacob graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., with a degree in entomology. He will begin graduate studies this fall at San Francisco State University through the California Academy of Sciences. “I hope to pursue a career in academia that incorporates a lot of evolutionary biology and collections-based museum work.”

National Moth Week congratulates Jacob on his graduation and looks forward to many more years of collaboration. 

Over the course of the week, 3,548 species wee observed and 1,502 community members helped 5,088 iNaturalist users identify their moths. 61% of observations have research grade distinction, meaning that they are deposited as records in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)! Check out the observation totals by continent, country, and states/provinces below!

In the United States alone, 2,031 species were observed for the week, which is incredible considering there are 12,776 species described from North America north of Mexico! This means that 15.9% of all moths described from this region were observed only in one week!

The National Moth Week team urges you to contribute to science and biodiversity inventories by submitting your National Moth Week findings to iNaturalist! Our 2019 project can be found here and any submissions made for the dates of NMW 2019 (July 21-29) will be included in the project!

Register for NMW here.

During NMW 2018, a variety of moths were spotted on Project Noah throughout the world! Here are a few of our favorites below:

Project Noah has a new user interface! Check out the updated website and submit your moths to the Moths of the World mission today!

Register for National Moth Week 2019 here.

The Philippines is a tropical country and the National Moth Week celebration in July falls during the summer monsoon season which brings heavy rains to most of the archipelago. This however does not dampen our enthusiasm to celebrate this event.  Each year Philippine Lepidoptera, Inc. (PhiLep) sponsors moth watching and photography events in Baguio City at the highlands of the Cordillera. But why in Baguio City?

Though highly urbanized, Baguio City is situated at an altitude of approximately 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) in the Luzon tropical pine forests ecoregion conducive for the growth of mossy plants and trees that are host to a variety of lepidopterans.  Moths are naturally bountiful and attracted to the lights of a mall in the city, hence there is no need to set up sophisticated moth light traps.  Moths cling to nearby plants and walls in the morning before they are predated upon by birds and lizards.

To celebrate the annual National Moth Week in 2016, Cordilleran’s Photo Sharing (CPS) Facebook group members with Rey M. Abellada representing Philippine Lepidoptera as coach did a moth search photo walk. This was registered with National Moth Week 2016. Rain was heavy in the early morning but still they proceeded with the photo walk when the rain abated.  Philippine Lepidoptera (PhiLep) T-shirts, key chains and book markers were given to participants and guests.

Follow Philippine Lepidoptera and their adventures on Facebook or on their website.

If you have images of insects and spiders that you would like identified, BugGuide.net, is the premier identification website in North America. The interactive nature and easy submitting process, continue to be major factors in its success. Unlike similar websites, a contributor need only register, and start posting images for ID request. While hosted by Iowa State University’s entomology department, Ids and placements are made by more than 200 veteran editors, assisted by expert specialists from universities from around the world.

BugGuide’s large database of more than 1 million images, is easily accessible. You are always only a few clicks from, say, finding what species of moths have been submitted from your state.