National Moth Week July 23-29, 2012
Now that National Pollinator Week is over, you can focus on the upcoming National Moth Week!
Mark your calendars for July 23-29, 2012.
They can be amazing mimics; they can be as tiny as the head of a pin. They can be huge with surprising underwing patterns, like the moth on the Moth Week Logo. The purpose of Moth Week is two-fold; to encourage people to go outside and look at the life around them, and also to encourage people to document and submit what they see as part of a larger citizen science project.
You don’t need to know exactly what you are looking at–just submit your GPS coordinates and a good photo of the moth, and most of the Moth Week Partner sites will identify them for you, and add them to their database showing species ranges.
This is a great excuse to sit outside in the evening, drink a beverage, and DO SCIENCE.
There are Moth Week Events all over the US and the world! I hope to be at this one with the Wagner Lab:
Connecticut, Vernon, Tankerhoosen Preserve
N 41 50′ 49.91″, W 72 25′ 59.67″
7/23/2012“Our National Moth Week Event will take place at the Tankerhoosen Reserve off route 84 in Vernon on July 23, 2012, starting around 8:30pm. The Wagner Lab from UConn will be attending and we will be Moth Lighting with a mercury vapor lamp and a sheet.”
I’ll be there, because I am a BAD MOTH-ER…. (Shut your mouth!)
Some resources:
- How to light trap moths (Video)
- How to bait for moths (PDF; note that some methods involve wine)
- BugGuide has photos of most common moths in the US!
Reblogged this on gollygwiz and commented:
Hey get your light traps out and sample the local moth community for science!
Thanks for all the useful info. I’ll be out in the garden with my torch tonight.
Here in San Diego, National Moth Week is all we can talk about!
(Love your blog.)