The Exquisite Moths of Mothapalooza

 

This is one of three photos I've taken that show moths that match or closely match those shown in photos posted by Jim McCormac on his blog, after his recent "Mothapalooza" weekend.  But I haven't seen moths as colorful as he has!  (Photo by Don Comis)

 

On his blogsite, Jim McCormac, a wildlife biologist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, has fantastic photographs of moths taken at his annual Mothapalooza weekend, held the last weekend of June this year.

Although I'm on a moth kick too, and learned recently that moths aren't as dull as they seem, I still find some of his moth photos unbelievable, especially the giant leopard moth shown on his July 4th blog.  Originally I though the moth had yellow eyes like jewels, but I read closer tonight and realized the yellow is a form of bleeding the moth does when attacked, to deter predators.  Jim's crew pushed on the moth's thorax to induce the bleeding defense, but no moths were harmed in this production!

I hope to go to his Mothapalooza some year.   I just ordered a mercury vapor bulb to better equip myself for National Moth Week, July 19-27, although my porch lights already give me more moths than I can handle.  I'll try to observe moths for at least an hour each of those nine nights.

That's the easiest part, although it can wreck my day life and chores.  The hard part is submitting all those photos for identification.  Lately I've been sending one photo a night to three websites for identification:  www.butterfliesandmoths.org, www.projectnoah.org, and www.iNaturalist.org.  And those photos were all taken in June or earlier!

I think all three sites are linked to National Moth Week so a submission to any of them gets in the National Moth Week count.

I used to send my photos only to "butterflies and moths", but I haven't got any identified in a while, so I decided to try the other two sites--but I haven't gotten any id's there either.  I think my problem with "butterflies and moths" is just temporary and local, but I suspect that Project Noah and iNaturalist participants rarely get quick identifications, at least not for moths, a creature with far fewer fans than butterflies.  My "butterflies and moths" sightings used to get a response from a regional expert sometimes in less than an hour and rarely in more than three days.

But Project Noah and iNaturalist are still promising sites for other reasons.  iNaturalist has a smartphone app and both sites seem to share my "crazy" idea of documenting every living creature we see wherever we are, including plants.  So I have to love them.

I joined Project Noah when I found out that the Mothapalooza crew would submit its photos of species found to Project Noah.   In fact, tonight I noticed that some of those photos are already posted there and can be found by searching "Mothapalooza Lodge" under "Organisms".  Naturally the participants can't resist sending in photos of all other living things they saw at the Mothapalooza headquartered at a lodge in Burr Oak State Park.

I get a lot of ideas from Jim McCormac's blog and I tend to want to copy his equipment.  Someday I'll get a true macro lens and I hope to get his recommendation on that if I make it to the Midwest Native Plant Society's butterfly workshop on July 12, where McCormac will be. 

I learned from his recent blog that his smartphone is an iPhone 5S and he likes its camera and video features.  I'm overdue for my first smartphone and I think some young people I've talked to were recommending this iPhone model as well ;o)


Other links:

http://insects.about.com/od/entomologytools/ss/How-To-Build-Your-Own-Mercury-Vapor-Light-Setup.htm  (This site taught me I could get by with a 160-watt self-ballasted clear mercury vapor bulb
bought at an online bulb supply store for $25 and a clamp light with a ceramic bulb socket, rated for higher than the bulb wattage.  The guy at that site bought a 300-watt clamp light for $15 at his local big box store, which for me would be Lowe's or Walmart.  He clamps the light to an old camera tripod and secures it with zip ties.  Until I get my camera tripods back from Maryland, I'll probably use a shepherd's hook to clamp to and secure that with zip ties.)

http://www.bioquip.com/  (I decided to order my bulb from this company for convenience, even though it cost me about $50.  I also liked being able to order UV safety glasses from this company with my bulb order, for about $10, just in case looking at the mercury vapor light could hurt my eyes.. We'll see if I get it in time for National Moth Week.)

 

This is the second moth I've photographed that resembles one on Jim McCormac's recent blogs.  I'm waiting for identification of this one, but am pretty sure it's a grass-vaneer moth and may be the Pasture Grass-veneer, Crambus saltuellus shown on his blog.  I had one of my earlier moth photographs identified as this moth.  As McCormac says, this moth is so little it can easily be overlooked, but it's worth a closer look.  (Photo by Don Comis)

 

This is the third moth I've photographed that matches one on McCormac's recent blogs.  I had this one identified so I know it's the same moth species,  The Beggar, Eubapha mendica.  (Photo by Don Comis)

(Also check out my website.)