mollymjacobson's Journal

Hello everyone - we'd like to thank you all for attending our Heiberg Forest moth night on July 20th! While it was a bit chilly and activity tapered off early, we ended up with a respectable diversity of moths: 49 species! These data are valuable for National Moth Week efforts to help scientists better understand the distribution, ecology, and conservation status of our native moth species.
While not all observations have been expert-verified yet, I have compiled a semi-final species list for the night. This list will also be sent out over email as a pdf. Our rarest species was probably Packard's Carpet, and our most speciose family was Geometridae!

So without further ado, enjoy!

Those denoted with an asterisk are, at the time of writing, not verified/identified to species, and thus are subject to future change. Such changes would be reflected on the specific observation posts which can be found on the project page.

Family Argyresthiidae
Argyresthia oreasella - Cherry Shoot Borer

Family Autostichidae
Taygete attributella - Triangle-marked Twirler

Family Crambidae
Crambus agitatellus - Double-banded Grass-veneer
Desmia funeralis complex - Grape Leaffolder
Elophila faulalis - aquatic crambid
Herpetogramma aeglealis - Serpentine Webworm
Herpetogramma sp. - webworm sp.*
Microcrambus biguttellus - Gold-striped Grass-veneer

Family Depressariidae
Agonopterix pulvipennella - Goldenrod Leaffolder

Family Erebidae
Halysidota harrisii/tessellaris - tussock moth sp.
Haploa confusa - Confused Haploa
Hypoprepia fucosa - Painted Lichen Moth
Zanclognatha laevigata - Variable Fan-foot*

Family Gelechiidae
Dichomeris flavocostella - Cream-edged Dichomeris

Family Geometridae
Caripeta divisata - Gray Spruce Looper
Costaconvexa centrostrigaria - Bent-lined Carpet
Dyspteris abortivaria - Bad-Wing Moth
Ecliptopera silaceata - Small Phoenix*
Epirrhoe alternata - White-banded Toothed Carpet*
Eugonobapta nivosaria - Snowy Geometer
Eulithis diversilineata/gracilineata - Grapevine Looper
Euphyia intermediata - Sharp-angled Carpet*
Idaea dimidiata - Single-dotted Wave
Macaria pustularia - Lesser Maple Spanworm
Melanolophia canadaria - Canadian Melanolophia
Mesoleuca ruficillata - White-ribboned Carpet
Scopula limboundata - Large Lace-border
Xanthorhoe ferrugata - Red Twin-spot Carpet
Xanthorhoe packardata - Packard's Carpet

Family Gracillariidae
Acrocercops astericola - Aster Tentiform Blotchminer*
Caloptilia sp. - leaf blotch miner sp.*

Family Lasiocampidae
Malacosoma disstria - Forest Tent Caterpillar Moth

Family Noctuidae
Achatodes zeae - Elder Shoot Borer
Cucullia convexipennis - Brown-hooded Owlet
Diarsia jucunda - Smaller Pinkish Dart*
Pseudeustrotia carneola - Pink-barred Pseudeustrotia
Tricholita signata - Signate Quaker

Family Notodontidae
Clostera albosigma - Sigmoid Prominent
Gluphisia septentrionis - Common Gluphisia Moth

Family Oecophoridae
Callima argenticinctella - Orange-headed Callima

Family Plutellidae
Plutella xylostella - Diamondback Moth

Family Pyralidae
Aphomia sp. - bee moth sp.*

Family Tortricidae
Archips packardiana - Spring Spruce Needle Moth
Archips purpurana - Omnivorous Leafroller
Argyrotaenia velutinana - Red-banded Leafroller
Hedya separatana - Pink-washed Leafroller
Notocelia rosaecolana - Doubleday's Notocelia Moth
Olethreutes permundana - Raspberry Leafroller*
Olethreutes sp. - leafroller moth sp.*

Thanks for sticking with me here as I photodump from all of the public moth blacklighting events I hosted this summer. I am almost done with the last batch, and then it's back to bees - I'm sitting on a handful of good species, and my backlog is staggering (there are definitely photos from 2 or 3 years ago that still need sorting). I promise I haven't turned into a full-time moth observer :)

Hello everyone! We'd like to present the final (for now) species tally for our moth night. We apologize for the delay in getting this compiled - we hoped to give it some time for more of the observations to become Research Grade but given that it's stalled for a bit now, we might as well put together the list. In the meantime, our event was featured in iNaturalist's July newsletter!

Overall, we found 27 moth species! For how chilly it was that night, this is certainly respectable. Even so, while there wasn't a huge diversity of moths, some of the species we did get were rather unusual and uncommon in our area; the pink-streak moth has no other upstate NY records on iNat, and the four-lined borer moth has no NY records on iNat at all! The community composition of the moths we found also reflect the surrounding landscape - the waterlily leafcutter is a wetland moth, the ironweed plume moth and purple carrot-seed moth likely came from the gardens right around the building, and many of the moths we saw are associated with weed grasses found in human-modified areas. The insect communities present in a location can tell a story about the land, and give us a clue as to the quality of the habitat around us for biodiversity and ecosystem health.

So without further ado, here is our species list. Please note that only around half of our species have been verified by an expert, although we have done our very best to correctly identify these moths. This means changes may occur at a later point - this will be reflected on the observation itself, and you can see an updated species list by going to the 'Species' tab on the project. What we present to you now is a current snapshot. Those that are not Research Grade at time of writing are denoted with an asterisk.

Family Crambidae
Elophila obliteralis - Waterlily Leafcutter Moth
Paracorsia repandalis - Scarce Straw Pearl
Parapediasia teterrellus - Bluegrass Webworm Moth*
Pyrausta acrionalis - Mint-loving Pyrausta

Family Depressariidae
Depressaria depressana - Purple Carrot-seed Moth*

Family Erebidae
Apantesis nais/phalerata - tiger moth sp.*
Caenurgina crassiuscula/erechtea - looper sp.*
Macrochilo orciferalis - Bronzy Owlet
Phalaenophana pyramusalis - Dark-banded Owlet
Rivula propinqualis - Spotted Grass Moth
Tetanolita floridana - Florida Tetanolita

Family Geometridae
Anavitrinella pampinaria - Common Gray
Biston betularia - Peppered Moth
Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria - Blackberry Looper
Iridopsis larvaria - Bent-line Gray
Xanthotype sp. - crocus geometer moth complex

Family Glyphipterigidae
Diploschizia impigritella - Yellow Nutsedge Moth*

Family Noctuidae
Dargida rubripennis - Pink Streak Moth
Leucania sp. - wainscot sp.*
Protodeltote muscosula - Large Mossy Glyph
Resapamea stipata - Four-lined Borer Moth
Tricholita signata - Signate Quaker*

Family Notodontidae
Gluphisia septentrionis - Common Gluphisia Moth

Family Pterophoridae
Hellinsia paleaceus - Ironweed Plume Moth*

Family Torticidae
Ancylis sp. - leafroller moth sp.*
Cochylina sp. - leafroller moth sp.*
Sparganothini sp. - sparganothid leafroller sp.*

Welcome back for a new semester, both new and returning students! The campus may be changed from the last time you saw it - particularly our quad meadow! We encourage you to get out and iNat in our campus plantings; our bioswale (behind Bray), the Robin Hood Oak garden (also behind Bray), and the Campus Dr. garden (behind Moon) are full of flowers. There's tremendous activity on the sneezeweed, swamp vervain, boneset, and goldenrod(s), just to name a few.

If you'd like to collect some specimens for Bee Campus, stop by Illick 411 to pick up a vial of ethanol (there is a box outside the door). Return it with metadata (where, when, who, and what flower) and we'll pin your insects, identify them, and add them to the campus collection!

We will also be having a native plant sale on September 7th at Baltimore Woods Nature Center, as a part of the Wild Ones 20th Anniversary Celebration!