Moths Outnumber Birds and Butterflies--March 28, 2014

Photograph of "rosy maple moth" by Jim McCormac, on back cover of the Ohio Department of  Natural Resources Division of Wildlife's newest free field guide, "Moths of Ohio", published in March 2014.

Ailanthus webworm moth.  I call this the Hawaiian moth because it looks like it has hibiscus flowers on its wings.  This it the first moth in the new field guide, probably because it is so unusual and pretty looking for a moth.  It resembles a beetle, possibly a defense from predators, because beetles are foul-tasting, although I haven't tried eating them.  (I took this photo on  July 30, 2012 at my mother-in-law's house in Howard, Ohio.)

After receiving an unexpected free new field guide to moths of Ohio in the mail today, I'm getting fired up about photographing moths at my porch lights again.

I got it in the mail because I had failed to attend an Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife annual conference this month because of winter weather fears.

I've gotten much needed help from other of their field guides, all free, especially those on salamander and frogs, and butterflies.

This should help me suggest identifications for the moths I photograph and submit to the "Butterflies and Moths of North America" website, http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org.

There are over 3,000 known species of moths in Ohio.   Throughout the United States, you can assume each county has about 500 species.

Expanding to include Canada gives us nearly 10,500 known moth species.  To bring this into context, there are only 765 species of butterflies and about 765 birds in North America, above Mexico.  And moths outnumber butterflies 14 to 1 overall.  In Ohio, it's at least 20 to 1.