Moths and other beasts of the night

[tusenord]

This the time for longer nights in the north, so thus time for dragging out my UV lights and heath traps and start investigating the area for moths and other creepycrawlies that attracts to light! Not much hope, but is there anyone else that has the same weird interest here? Or anyone else wanting to hear endless facts about nightflutterers?

 

[mrsmig]

I have a friend in the UK (former head of the Etymology department at a major university) who sets out moth traps in the evening and tallies the results over his morning coffee. He used to post photos on Twitter/X, but no longer. I miss it, and would love to hear about your moths!

 

[Thecla]

We're not so far north as you, tusenord, but our light trap picked up a poplar hawkmoth and a green carpet moth last night, plus a few others we've not had time to identify yet. Lots of cinnabar moth larvae on the ragwort and other hawkmoth larvae in the bracken.

edit: day fliers are mostly meadow browns, small tortoiseshells and common blues.

 

[tusenord]

We're not so far north as you, tusenord, but our light trap picked up a poplar hawkmoth and a green carpet moth last night, plus a few others we've not had time to identify yet. Lots of cinnabar moth larvae on the ragwort and other hawkmoth larvae in the bracken.

edit: day fliers are mostly meadow browns, small tortoiseshells and common blues.

Got a poplar hawkmoth as well last night! And some fifteen other species, one a slightly less common one called Metalampra cinnamomea (no idea if it has an english name?).

Never seen the cinnabar moth but have wanted to for some time.

 

[tusenord]

I have a friend in the UK (former head of the Etymology department at a major university) who sets out moth traps in the evening and tallies the results over his morning coffee. He used to post photos on Twitter/X, but no longer. I miss it, and would love to hear about your moths!

Too bad he stopped! Not sure my colleagues are all that pleased when I try to show photos... I don't have them up every night, especially since I've branched out from the farm I live at to interesting areas in the municipality (often reserves). Long trips make fewer attempts. Not sure how much photos I can post on this forum? I got a more formal instagram for all the nature conservation stuff I work with, and one personal with more random horses/nephews/chickens/insects mix.

 

[mrsmig]

Too bad he stopped! Not sure my colleagues are all that pleased when I try to show photos... I don't have them up every night, especially since I've branched out from the farm I live at to interesting areas in the municipality (often reserves). Long trips make fewer attempts. Not sure how much photos I can post on this forum? I got a more formal instagram for all the nature conservation stuff I work with, and one personal with more random horses/nephews/chickens/insects mix.

We have several threads in this subforum where people have shared images of wildlife. Probably the best response to your question re: posting photos is {1) be certain you're within AW's image size guidelines, (2) share in moderation, and (3) bear in mind that images eat up bandwidth, and that this place is, first and foremost, a writers' forum.

 

[tusenord]

We have several threads in this subforum where people have shared images of wildlife. Probably the best response to your question re: posting photos is {1) be certain you're within AW's image size guidelines, (2) share in moderation, and (3) bear in mind that images eat up bandwidth, and that this place is, first and foremost, a writers' forum.

Yeah, I was thinking of the bandwidth thing but didn't know the terms and how it applies to different sites. We had that as a huge issue with the website of a birder's club were some didn't want to obey the rules of keeping images small and few...

Time to go through last nights photos now. Mostly small, grey, and beige so will see what I can tell species-wise.

 

[Catriona Grace]

One of our museum volunteers is an amateur lepidopterist who has completely upended the count of butterfly and moth species in our county. When he got started, BAMONA listed 26 moth species. Dwaine single-handedly added first sightings of around 450 more species. I can't recall the numbers for butterfly species, but they are equally impressive.

 

[tusenord]

One of our museum volunteers is an amateur lepidopterist who has completely upended the count of butterfly and moth species in our county. When he got started, BAMONA listed 26 moth species. Dwaine single-handedly added first sightings of around 450 more species. I can't recall the numbers for butterfly species, but they are equally impressive.

Cool! Knowledge of our biodiversity is so dependent on volunteering/free labour! I think I added 92 new species to the local community and 10 or so to the regional my first year with the heath traps, and our region is pretty well searched due to university, regional nature centre etc. And moths are pretty pleasant work - turn on a lamp, wait.

How common is reporting in BAMONA in the US? We still have some information not digitalized yet.

 

[Catriona Grace]

Cool! Knowledge of our biodiversity is so dependent on volunteering/free labour! I think I added 92 new species to the local community and 10 or so to the regional my first year with the heath traps, and our region is pretty well searched due to university, regional nature centre etc. And moths are pretty pleasant work - turn on a lamp, wait.

How common is reporting in BAMONA in the US? We still have some information not digitalized yet.

Nice totting up of species for you, too!

I don't know the answer to the reporting question. I'm more of a prairie dog and rattlesnake girl myself.

 

[tusenord]

I keep a tally, and got a total of 2277 invertebrates that I've seen so far! 825 in Lepidoptera (both moths and butterflies).

 

[Helix]

I don't use light traps here but I do check out the moths and other insects that come to the windows at night. It's cold and wet at the moment, so the numbers are down, but one of the more frequent window-visitors is Creatonotus gangia, which is a fantastic little beast.

In summer, we get a lot of the day-flying Alcides metaurus on flowering trees.

I wish I knew more about moths.

 

[Albedo]

I don't know much about moths, but my old apartment in northern Sydney was visited by one the size of a small aircraft one night. I'll see if I can find the picture when I get home.

 

[Helix]

I don't know much about moths, but my old apartment in northern Sydney was visited by one the size of a small aircraft one night. I'll see if I can find the picture when I get home.

One of them part-insect part-pteranodon all gentle giant ghost moths (Hepialidae)?

 

[Albedo]

One of them part-insect part-pteranodon all gentle giant ghost moths (Hepialidae)?

Looking at pictures, I don't think it was one of those, as it had straight wings, not delta shaped.

 

[Albedo]

Found the absolute lad:

 

[Helix]

What an absolute unit! Emperor Gum Moth (Opodiphthera eucalypti, Saturniidae) or something of its ilk.

 

[Albedo]

What an absolute unit! Emperor Gum Moth (Opodiphthera eucalypti, Saturniidae) or something of its ilk.

Awesome! I hope he's doing well now. (Not reading the bit about how they only live for 5 weeks)

 

[tusenord]

We don't get them quite so huge!

 

[tusenord]

Whoa so many caddis flies in yesterdays traps! Three new species for me and I have some hundred left... plus a bunch of moths, with one new for the municipality. Been a rainy July and start of August here so hoping for some late mild nights for more moth galore! I still haven't figured out where to share pics without overburdening this site.

 

[dmns2]

I've always had a very soft spot for bats--I think they're cute and of course there is the whole unique-as-flying-mammals thing. So if that counts I'm in! Also just like being outside at night myself, I think there is always cool stuff to see.

 

[tusenord]

I've always had a very soft spot for bats--I think they're cute and of course there is the whole unique-as-flying-mammals thing. So if that counts I'm in! Also just like being outside at night myself, I think there is always cool stuff to see.

It counts! I usually have my detector-thingy for bats with me when I'm out at night

 

[Tiger1b]

I don't use light traps here but I do check out the moths and other insects that come to the windows at night. It's cold and wet at the moment, so the numbers are down, but one of the more frequent window-visitors is Creatonotus gangia, which is a fantastic little beast.

In summer, we get a lot of the day-flying Alcides metaurus on flowering trees.

I wish I knew more about moths.

I’m sure it’s a worldwide phenomenon, but more than one species of gecko have learned to sit on or around porch lights—and grow fatter by the minute.

(Make sure to leave some fruit out for your big, furry, flapping friends)

 

[MaeZe]

This was a story from last week:

https://news.yahoo.com/she-saw-snakes-head-coming-100428880.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma

Look closely. I thought of your avatar, @tusenord when I saw the image.


Some of those Atlas moths, wow! Huge, gorgeous and crazy!

https://imgur.com/5DxhIKT

 

[mrsmig]

Moths have the BEST names.