David Moskowitz and Liti Haramaty, with The Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission , have been holding public Moth Nights in their local community several times every year since 2005 (www.friendsebec.com). Exploring the seldom seen nightlife, and celebrating biodiversity is the goal of these Moth Nights. The events typically attract 30 to 50 people, some with a scientific interest and others who simply want to experience a unique nighttime nature activity. In addition to widespread mainstream media attention, the Moth Nights have attracted many blog and website posts spotlighting the events, including some by children describing their experiences and amateur photographers showing off their moth shots. This publicity has made the events a spotlight on moths and biodiversity and has hopefully raised environmental awareness well beyond those who attend Moth Nights. Photographs of moths taken during moth nights have also been submitted to different organizations for their data collection programs. In 2011 The “Friends” Moth Nights received an award from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions for an outstanding Local Environmental Project. The East Brunswick Mayor and Town Council also issued a Proclamation of Recognition. The East Brunswick Moth Nights were also featured in Wild New Jersey: Nature Adventures in the Garden State, written by David Wheeler and Published in 2011 by Rutgers University Press. In the fall of 2011, through their involvement with the Moth and Moth-Watching Facebook page, Liti and Dave decided to take Moth Nights to a new level – National Moth Week – a week long, global mothing event to promote the understanding and enjoyment of moths and to raise awareness about biodiversity. Please join us as we celebrate moths, biodiversity and the natural world around us.
David Moskowitz – Co-Founder
Co-FounderDavid Moskowitz is a Senior Vice President with EcolSciences, Inc. an environmental consulting firm in Rockaway, New Jersey. He has been with the company for the past 24 years and specializes in wetland and wildlife studies, remediation of contaminated sites and environmental regulatory compliance. Mr. Moskowitz has a Bachelors degree in Environmental Studies from George Washington University, a Masters degree in Environmental Policy Studies from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a PhD in Entomology from Rutgers University. His doctoral thesis is on the rare tiger spiketail dragonfly using micro-transmitters. David is also a Professional Wetland Scientist and has served on the National Certification Board of the Society of Wetland Scientists, a United States Fish and Wildlife Service Bog Turtle Surveyor and a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Qualified Ornithologist. He has written more than two-dozen technical and popular articles on wildlife and wetlands and lectures widely around New Jersey on butterflies, rare species and vernal pools. Mr. Moskowitz is very active in local environmental efforts. He was the driving force behind the creation of the East Brunswick Butterfly Park, the first municipal park in the Country dedicated to the conservation, enjoyment and study of butterflies and the East Brunswick Vernal Pool Protection Plan that features spring road closures to allow amphibians to safely reach their breeding habitats. Along with Liti Haramaty he also was the stimulus behind the creation of the East Brunswick Community Garden. Mr. Moskowitz has served on the East Brunswick Environmental Commission for the past 15 years and also served on the Board of Trustees of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions. Mr. Moskowitz lives in East Brunswick with his wife and three children and is happy to have stumbled upon a profession that allows him to frequently wander swamps and fields and woods looking for butterflies, dragonflies, birds, salamanders and all other kinds of similar creatures.
Liti Haramaty – Co-Founder
Co-FounderLiti Haramaty is a founding member of the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission and a member of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission since 2002. Liti received a Master of Science degree in Ecology in 1987, for her work on morphology and ecological adaption in corals. She has worked at SUNY Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Lab. Since 1999 she has been employed at the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University. She has been involved in a variety of research projects such as drug discovery from natural products, programmed cell death in phytoplankton and corals, human effects on coral reefs, and more. At Rutgers she also initiated a program for children on “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day”, during which children get to be “an oceanographer for a day”. Liti is a board member of the ‘East Brunswick Education Foundation‘, a trustee for The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC). Liti was involved in helping expand the foreign language collection of her town’s public library and started two community related web sites. Liti likes traveling, hiking, kayaking, gardening and cooking. She also likes reading, sewing and pysanki. She wishes there were more than 24 hours in a day.
Elena Tartaglia – Education
Elena Tartaglia earned her PhD in Ecology from Rutgers University and is currently an assistant professor at Bergen Community College. Her research focuses on moths of the family Sphingidae, which are large, pollinating moths commonly called hawkmoths. She has studied various aspects of nocturnal hawkmoth ecology and behavior such as their abundance and diversity in fragmented urban systems, their nectar diets, and their role as pollinators in the urban landscape of the NJ-NY metropolitan area. She also studies day-flying hawkmoths, commonly called clearwing moths. Since these moths are mimics of bumblebees, she has been comparing their nectar feeding behaviors to the bees that they mimic and the nocturnal moths to which they are related. Though she began her graduate career as a plant ecologist, she has since embraced entomology wholeheartedly. Elena has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Drew University and has been involved in ecology and environmental education since graduating. She has worked as an environmental educator for NJ Audubon Society and as an educator, native plant propagator and meadow restorationist for Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve.
Sandra Lanman – Communication
Sandra Lanman has worked as a writer and communicator since the 1970s. A New York City native, she began her career as a print journalist with The Home News in New Brunswick, where she won awards for opinion and creative writing, and for reporting on health and medical issues. Sandy moved into public relations in the late 1980s, working successively in the arts, public broadcasting and higher education. She helped Crossroads Theatre Company of New Brunswick achieve national and international visibility, served as director of communications for New Jersey Network, and handled high-profile projects for Rutgers University as director of media relations, including the visit of the Dalai Lama in 2005. She has won more than a dozen state and national awards for her writing, reporting, and public relations campaigns. In East Brunswick, Sandy led the successful community-wide effort to establish school-age childcare, was an original member of the East Brunswick Education Foundation, and produced and hosted EB People on EBTV. Sandy is president of Lanman Communications LLC and volunteers her services with the Friends of EBEC. She also is board secretary for Elijah’s Promise in New Brunswick. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Douglass College and master’s in communication and information studies from the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers. Sandy has hiked many national parks and loves photographing butterflies and moths. She is delighted to contribute to this important citizen science project.
Jacob Gorneau
Jacob Gorneau is a graduate of Cornell University, with a B.S. in Entomology. He is very interested in the systematics and evolution of arthropods, and is interested in how we can use different techniques to better understand evolution. He became interested in moths in 2009 when he saw a Black witch (Ascalapha odorata) in Florida and a Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) the same year at his home in New York. Jacob started regularly mothing in 2012. At Cornell, he worked in the Cornell University Insect Collection where he is conducting research on the micromoth genus Argyresthia and on a project to curate the macrolepidoptera in the collection. In addition, he worked in the Rayor lab on preparing spider specimens for the Spiders: Fear and Fascination exhibit which debuted in June 2018 at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. In the classroom, Jacob enjoys being overwhelmed by the opportunities in entomology and teaching other students about these opportunities as a teaching assistant in Insect Biology and Alien Empire. In fall 2020, he will be attending San Francisco State University for a Master’s in Biology with a concentration in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation.
Belen Mena – Graphic Design
Belen Mena is the founder of a design studio in Ecuador, devoted to branding systems, visual communication, corporate image, and editorial design. Mainly focused on coffee table books of photography and art since 1992. She is the author of “Pachanga”. The book aims to explore moths as a incomparable natural resource inspiration, employing it as the basis for a bi-dimensional analysis of the compositional, geometric and chromatic possibilities of this macro-world. It seeks to make the link between our urban lives and those of these near-invisible beings who come out at night for their ‘pachanga’, dressed to the nines, like ladies of the night heading to the street corner. This publication has received important international acknowledgements, such as the 2008 IF GoldAward (International Forum of Design), and was nominated by the Art Directors Club for the best 2007 book. It has published in Spanish, German and Japanese. http://issuu.com/belenmena/docs/pachanga
Carl D. Barrentine
Carl D. Barrentine, Spokane, Washington, USA. An old man now, recently retired from two college teaching careers (one in biology at California State University, Bakersfield and the other in Humanities at the University of North Dakota), Carl now spends sleepless summers finding and photographing elusive ‘hinterland’ moths from way-up-Minnesota and North Dakotaland. Pushed on by his enthusiastic mothing mentor and biological buddy, Jerry Fauske (Entomology, NDSU, Fargo, ND), Carl has very nearly survived five full seasons of serious mothing (2012-16).
Roger Kendrick
Roger Kendrick, Roger is Founder of Asian Lepidoptera Conservation Symposium, co-founder, life member & founding chairman of Hong Kong Lepidopterists’ Society, life member of Butterfly Conservation in the UK, Hong Kong. Roger is a NMW Science Advisory Board member, Hong Kong coordinator and admin of the NMW iNatuarlist project.
Dr. Vijay Barve – Country Coordinators
Vijay is an IT professional by training and nature lover by heart. He has been a nature enthusiast from childhood interested in birds and invertebrates. His interest in butterflies and moths started with rearing of caterpillars collected from backyard garden. He continued his interest in biodiversity recordings and with development of Internet got involved with cyber-communities involved with biodiversity. He is co-founder of DiversityIndia (http://diversityindia.org) and has been co-ordinating the communities since 2001. He has also been associated with organizations such as WWF India, BNHS, RANWA, GBIF, NatureMates, Indian Foundation for Butterflies and MonarchWatch in different capacities. He has also been an active contributor of wikipedia, iNaturalist, Indian Biodiversity Portal, Bhutan Biodiversity Portal, Project Noah, and Encyclopedia of Life.
Dr. V. Shubhalaxmi
Known as Shubha, she is one of India’s most enthusiastic and knowledgeable experts on moths. She also is the newest member of National Moth Week’s Science Advisory Board. She is the author of the recently published Field Guide to Indian Moths, which took 10 years to research and write. She holds a Ph.D. in Zoology , has studied and worked with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and won a Hubert Humphrey Fellowship to study conservation education at Boston University in 2009.
Ken Childs
Ken Childs is a longtime bug enthusiast, originally from Southern California, where he spent twenty-two years working in the tropical fish import/export business. He’s always been fascinated with arthropods. While working in California, he never had the luxury of spending time exploring the local fauna. That changed in 2005, when he moved to Tennessee to open an equine training and retirement facility with his wife, Joan. Photographing insects in his spare time became an obsession which eventually led to an interest in moths. It had the convenience of being a nighttime activity, so it didn’t interfere with taking care of the farm. Ken setup his first bug-lights in 2009, and in 2017 he constructed a covered pavilion for them, so rain and wind wouldn’t interfere with his hobby. His main focus is on photographing and documenting the different species that can be found on his farm, which is located close to Jackson, TN. His photos have been used in numerous publications worldwide.
Aundrea Schneider – Social Media
Social MediaAundrea Schneider, a multi-passionate, outdoor educator and wilderness skills instructor, became enthralled with insects and spiders through many years of exploring, studying and volunteering in the outdoors. Her enthusiasm for entomology is said to be contagious to those willing to join her in the wild, as she encourages exploration, discovery and attempts to eliminate fears and misconceptions.
Aundrea’s background includes a variety of dabbled-in industries, which is where the basics of graphic design and marketing skills are pulled from. She has obtained a variety of certifications and training to support her current and expanding outdoor career since, including a 2-year Outdoor Persuits Program, followed by instructor-training through a local Wilderness School, where she instructed various subjects and co-guided remote trips. Aundrea later began teaching various outdoor-related courses for other companies via subcontract, while training in wilderness medicine, which she continues to practice as she gains the credentials to instruct future Wilderness First Responders.
Participation in research and program development for citizen science projects and participants, has created in Aundrea, an exceptional understanding and respect for the roles involved as well as data quality, biases and the trust we all must acquire for a project to be successful. National Moth Week is the very project that introduced her to the world of citizen science almost a decade ago, and she’ll continue to support NMW, its teams and the oh-so-spectacular moths that the project aims to have everyone celebrate!
Jamie Lubov -GIS expert, mapping 2023
Jamie Lubov is a passionate individual with a deep love for the natural world. Currently pursuing a double major in plant biology and ecology, evolution, and natural resources at Rutgers University, Jamie is dedicated to understanding and protecting the intricate ecosystems that surround us. They have raised caterpillars into butterflies since childhood, and most recently have worked with raising and captive breeding giant silk moths native to the area. Although their primary career goal revolves around the study of plants, Jamie’s unwavering passion for entomology remains a significant aspect of their life. Recognizing the importance of this field, they have become an active member of the Rutgers Entomology club, where they serve as the vice president. Through their involvement, Jamie seeks to foster a community of like-minded individuals who share their enthusiasm for insects and their essential role in our ecosystems, using their live insect pets to educate people about these fascinating animals and help kids and adults get over their fears. Using their ArcGIS experience, Jamie created the interactive maps for Moth Week 2023, and continues to use online platforms to bring awareness to moths and their diversity.
Science Advisory Board
Former teams members
Ian Morton lives in the Toledo District of southern Belize where he built and runs a small jungle guesthouse, and a large bug board.
The Wildlife and Conservation Trust, Gambia
Department of Zoology, National Museum of Nature and Science, Ibaraki, National Moth Week Japan
Max Frederick attended his first moth night in East Brunswick, N.J., when he was just 5 or 6 years old, and never missed a mothing event
Lani attended many moth nights and was student of anthropology and linguistics when she worked on mapping for NMW>
Nat loves nature and science. He was studying physics in college when he helped NMW with mapping.
PhD in Insect migration and conservation