We are trying a new way of organizing our projects this year that enables better downloading of data from each year of National Moth Week! With this new format, we have a single global project rather than one for each location under an umbrella project. This way, we plan to have an umbrella project including each year of National Moth Week.

We understand that you may want to have totals and summaries for your own location, however, and we encourage you to create a project for your region! There are already projects for all provinces in Canada, Washington State, and Colombia, among others! Be sure to also check out NMW member Roger Kendrick’s project, Moths of Asia, that is not just for NMW, but has an amazing selection of moths. Just download the NMW logo below and create your own event using the template “National Moth Week _insert location here_ 2020”.

Don’t forget to register a private event if you are uploading to iNaturalist – even if you are just looking at moths near lights outside!

For the first time we made mothing event in Slovakia. The organizer was the project Land of Bees, which educates about pollinators, mainly bees. But this year we started a special program about butterflies and moths.  

Our event was held on July 25, 2019. Mothing attracted not only moths, but also people and kids from our local community. We were also pleased by a visitor – 13-year-old enthusiastic entomologist that was talking with such passion about his experiences. We experienced that nature and insects are still attractive for kids. 

We observed approximately 15 species, forexample Phragmatobia fuliginosa, Chiasmia clathrate, Acronicta megacephala, Ematurga atomaria, Chlorissa clorar. Our visitors and even we were so surprised how diverse, colorful and fascinating the moths can be.  

We hope everybody enjoyed this night and we will continue 5^th of August with second Moth night. 

I moved to Massachusetts from Texas in 2014, and I was amazed at the diversity of insects to be found in the woods and meadows here. My weekends have since been filled with long walks during which I have happily and somewhat obsessively photographed thousands of moths, butterflies, and caterpillars among other things.

A gallery of many of these photos can be found here: http://isobellefox.deviantart.com/gallery/

In 2015, I began raising and releasing both butterflies and moths, and it was during this time that I discovered the Caterpillar Lab (http://www.thecaterpillarlab.org/). During a visit to one of the Lab’s public outreach events, I overheard a conversation about “mothing,” and I had a bit of a eureka moment.
Why, after all of the years of photographing moths on various porches and on the walls of convenience stores and other obscure late night locations, had it never occurred to me to actively try to draw them to my own backyard?
It seemed so obvious!
I began my own mothing adventure in the early spring of 2016, with a modest set up: a single blacklight bulb and a bit of curtain cloth draped over a small greenhouse enclosure. I was immediately delighted with the results and spent many, many nights experimenting with different lights. As the nights grew warmer, I observed ever increasing diversity in the population of moths and other insects that would visit my light, and I became more and more interested. I eventually purchased a brighter, larger blacklight and moved my mothing station to the side of a storage shed. With a brighter light and a flatter, larger surface area, my success rate vastly increased. My mothing sessions usually lasted from sundown until around 12 or 1am.
During this time, I also began to make my first attempts at identifying the moths that I was photographing each evening. I gradually found several websites and a few facebook groups devoted to the moths of Massachusetts.
It was, in fact, through these groups that I became aware of National Moth Week and enthusiastically signed up to have my already nightly backyard mothing sessions included in the event for 2016.
For the mothing seaons of 2016, I have managed to tentatively identify 241 moths, though I still have many photographs that are in need of research – something I am enjoying during these long, grey Winter months.
During National Moth Week, I recorded 86 species. Among my favorites were Suzuki’s Promalactis Moth, a beautiful, brightly colored micromoth, and the Large Maple Spanworm, which was easily the biggest moth I saw all year.

I am definitely still an amateur in the often confusing field of moth identification. I do my best and attempt to verify my findings using various rescources in the form of books, websites, and social media groups, but even with the help of those who are vastly more knowledgable, I have no doubt that many of my identifications are erroneous. There are also plenty of moths which simply manage to defy even my best efforts. This is, however,
part of the draw of mothing for me: there is always something new to see and something new to learn!

***

To see some of the moths Debbie photographed during the events at a local home on July 25, 2016 – click here.   Debbie shared with us a list of the moths that were identified in the various events.

These are a few unidentified moths – any help to ID is greatly appreciated

On 7-23-16 these moths were photographed at gardens near a busy expressway:

grateful midget moth     celery leaftier moth     chickweed geometer moth

the white-speck moth    Lucerne moth                snowy urola moth

the wedgling moth         Clemens grass tubeworm moth

On 7-25-16 we blacklighted for about an hour at home. Here is a list of identified moths:

catalpa sphinx moth       reticulated fruitworm moth      splendid palpita moth

double-banded grass-veneer moth                                     the wedgling moth

orange-headed epicallima moth                                          basswood leafroller moth

small bird-dropping moth                                                    dead-wood borer moth

white-lined snout moth                                                        drab prominent moth

On 7-27-16 we blacklighted at a large botanical garden:

clemens’ grass tubeworm moth    catalpa sphinx moth

drab prominent moth                     abbott’s sphinx moth

red-banded leafroller moth           common idia moth

grapeleaf skeletonizer moth          the Hebrew moth

American idia moth                        yellow-striped armyworm moth

the Lucerne moth                            waterlily leafcutter moth

grateful midget moth                     small mossy glyph moth

elegant grass-veneer moth           sober renia moth

large lace-border moth                 black-bordered lemon moth

snowy urola moth                          faint-spotted palthis

obtuse yellow moth                        a sparganothid moth

On 7-30-16 we blacklighted at Howell Wetlands:

Ailanthes webworm moth   Isabella tiger moth      Yellow-striped armyworm

Faint-spotted palthis            Delicate cycnia             Lost owlet mot

Black-banded owlet              Bluegrass webworm

Grateful midget                     Waved sphinx moth    Large mossy glyph

Maple looper                         Harnessed tiger moth

Clemens’ grass tubeworm moth                                 Elegant grass-veneer

Yellow-collared armyworm                                        

Either sycamore tussock or banded tussock

Green cloverworm                                                         Celery leaftier

Oblique-banded leafroller                                           Waterlily leafcutter moth

Grateful midget                    Black-bordered lemon

Dimorphic macalla              Large paectus                 Sharp stigma looper

Cherry casebearer

Read more

NMW participant Marcie O’Connor wrote about her event, or Moth Party, on her blog ‘Prairie Haven‘.  The party included hiking, food and of course moths…  There was no moth cake this year, but Anne promised to make one for next year’s Moth Party.

To read more about Prairie Haven’s Moth Party – click here.

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National Moth Week 2016 will be held July 23-31. Click here to register and event.

Why moths at Hickatee?
It all began with National Moth Week 2013, when we started to take a serious interest in the moths around our guesthouse grounds. That interest has grown into something of an obsession and we are now on a quest to record the moth species that we see here, just outside Punta Gorda Town in Southern Belize.
We soon realized that although we had images of a few hundred moths (421 different moths from NMW 2014) we were only able to identify a small number of these. Mathew Barnes’ excellent site http://www.mbarnes.force9.co.uk/belizemoths/belizehome.htm provided IDs for many of the early species but, as time went on and our collection of images grew, we now have images of nearly 2000 different moths recorded at Hickatee with the majority yet to be identified.
We love to learn and to share, and have created a new website at http://www.moths-of-belize.com/. The site is our attempt to try and begin to categorise the moths seen here, and to provide an accessible record for others to use. The site is very much a work in progress, being updated with families and subfamilies added as time allows.

National Moth Week 2015
Hickatee Cottages, Southern Belize, will again be hosting a week-long series of moth events and offering discounts on accommodation to moth-ers for that week.
Saturday 18th and Saturday 25th, 6pm until late.
“Open House” at Hickatee for all moth-ers and bug-nerds
The Bar will be open and snacks provided. We will have a number of lights out but feel free to bring your own lights, sheets and favorite bait. 6pm till late!!! Everyone welcome.

Nights of Sunday 19th to Friday 24th inclusive, 6pm until late
for resident guests
We will be setting out light stations and bait every night for our resident guests, both enthusiastic bug-nerds and for those yet to be converted! Feel free to bring your own lights, sheets and favorite bait, or let us know your favourite bait recipe and we can make it up in advance and let it brew.
Contact Ian at ian@hickatee.com for more information and visit our website at www.hickatee.com

]]> https://nationalmothweek.org/2015/05/13/mighty-moths-and-moths-with-mites-guest-post-by-ian-morton-belize/feed/ 0 7342 https://nationalmothweek.org/2014/12/11/did-you-submit-your-moth-week-observation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=did-you-submit-your-moth-week-observation https://nationalmothweek.org/2014/12/11/did-you-submit-your-moth-week-observation/#respond Thu, 11 Dec 2014 21:59:19 +0000 http://nationalmothweek.org/?p=6978 Did you submit your Moth Week observation? Read More »

Congratulations to Eric Metzler on receiving a National Park Service award for his moth study and survey in two National Parks. Eric is NMW Science Advisory Board member and coordinator of NMW events in the two National Parks.

Read about Eric and the NPS Intermountain Regional Director’s Award:

On Sept. 26 , National Park Service volunteer researcher Eric Metzler received the National Park Service’s (NPS) Intermountain Regional Director’s Award for Natural Resource Research. This esteemed honor is in recognition of Mr. Metzler’s significant moth research at White Sands National Monument and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. In 2007, Eric undertook a study to survey and identify species of moths at these two national park units. Eric’s work exemplifies excellence in advancing and publishing scientific research that furthers the goals of science and natural resource management in the National Park Service.
Metzler received the award because of key accomplishments in the field of research: 1) discovering more than 600 species of moths, 36 of which are new to science, and nearly all of the new species are endemic in the dunes of White Sands; 2) developing a baseline database for moth richness and diversity that helps NPS accomplish the all-taxa inventory goals; 3) providing interpretive materials, seminars and other formal presentations for both local and regional NPS staff; 4) publishing nine scientific papers, and one paper for the general public emphasizing the remarkable endemism of moths at White Sands and 5) volunteering 1600+ hours annually at both parks.
“Eric’s scientific contributions inspire stewardship and collaboration in the spirit of protection, preservation, and improvement of the natural resources of White Sands National Monument and Carlsbad Caverns National Park,” said NPS Intermountain Regional Director, Sue Masica.

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