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.)

Helping the World Count Moths for Conservation

With National Moth Week getting closer ((July 19 to 27), I decided it's time to start making one of my dreams come true--creating an online and hard copy photo album as a guide to the moths of Knox County, Ohio.

Since I moved here 2 years ago, I have had 50 of my photographs of moths identified and added to the county's listings on a database maintained by the Butterflies and Moths of North America project.  That brings the county's total on that listing to 63, bringing it to 7th place in number of moth species of Ohio's 88 counties.

But that's only because there may be only three or four volunteers sending in photos of moths at their porch lights.   No knowledge of moths is needed.  I have none--only a camera and a flashlight.

The actual figure for each Ohio county is probably about 500 moths each, since that's the expectation for the average size county area, at least in North America.

All you have to do is submit photos to www.butterfliesandmoths.org.  Or you can send them to other organizations listed at the National Moth Week website,  (http://nationalmothweek.org/).  National Moth Week would be a good time to give this a try, even if only for 15 minutes on one of the 9 days the "Week" comprises.  And the "National" Moth Week accepts photos from around the world, using the "National" word generically to mean whatever nation you're in!  If you choose the "butterflies and moths" site, you can indicate that you are doing it as part of National Moth Week and the data will be shared with that organization as well.

Back to the album I'm starting, here are the 11 moth photos I have as of tonight, that have been identified.  I lost many of my photographs of the other 39 moths I had stored on a failed external hard drive, but I still have over a thousand photos in my new portable hard drive, and possibly other photos I can retrieve from a stack of full memory sticks and other hidden storage places on my computer.  And I'm finding more new moths all the time, plus getting return visits from some of the 39 moths whose photographs I've lost.

For a longer version of this blog, go to my website at www.doncomis.simplesite.com and look at today's "Daily Nature Blog".

Spotted Grass Moth



Common Metarranthis

Crocus geometer

Yellowish Zanclognatha marcidilenea

Lettered Zanclognatha lituralis

White-lined Bomolocha

Unadorned carpet

Dark-banded Owlet

Ambiguous

Phragmitis Wainscot

Common Angle

National Moth Week July 19-27, 2014

National Moth Week is July19 to 27, 2014.   The "Week" is actually nine days and the "National" is really global, referring to whatever nation you're in.

It's a week in which you can contribute as a citizen scientist to knowledge about moths, by simply doing as I do year-round: Leave your porch lights/garage lights on for about an hour and then go out and photograph all the different moths and send them to one of the organizations listed at the website for National Moth Week (http://nationalmothweek.org/).  

I send my photos to BAMONA Butterflies and Moths of North America) for identification and recording in their database.  You don't have to identify moths yourself--I, for one, can't do that.  The experts do that for you!

I'm excited to notice the "moth week" site lists "iNaturalist" as one of the sites to submit photos to, because that site was mentioned today in an article in today's Sunday Columbus Dispatch (www.dispatch.com) about a study showing that "Species of plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene..."

The study's lead author is biologist Stuart Pimm of Duke University.  Pimm cites the "iNaturalist" as one of the smartphone applications that will help locate species in trouble, with data submitted by citizen scientists.

National Moth Week would be a good chance to try your hand at being a citizen scientist, even if for 15 to 60 minutes on one day that week, and do your part globally to find out if any moth species are in trouble.

The "Moth Week" website, as one answer to the question of "Why Moths?", says that, "Their colors and patterns are either dazzling or so cryptic that they define camouflage."

Here are some photos of moths I saw on May 31, that illustrate the point that moths are not all dull and bland, as some that we see in the daytime are.  The problem with the nocturnal moths is that we can't see their true colors and patterns unless we photograph them.

Heliomata cycladata, Common Spring Moth.   This is a good example of one with dazzling colors.

Cerma cerintha, Tufted Bird-Dropping Moth.  Although I would have cited this for its dazzling colors, once I found out its name, I realize that it's a better example of cryptic camouflage colors--unfortunately what looks lovely to us looks like bird shit to its predators!