The Moth and Me #7 is now up at Reflections on the Catawba. Lori runs a Tuesday Night Moth Club in western North Carolina as a regular event for the nature park where she works. She’s relatively new both to moths and to blog carnivals, so let’s all pop over and make her feel welcome! While you’re there, check out some of the links she’s posted on how to get started in mothing, see some of her latest catch, and check out all the other goodies submitted to her or that she’s collected from around the web.
The November edition, #8, will be hosted by Susannah over at Wanderin’ Weeta. Even though here in the northern hemisphere our snow-less season is drawing to a close, there’s still some last few moths to be caught on the warmest nights. Folks further south of the border might yet find things on the wing for a couple of months. Blog about what you find and send your links to Susannah (wanderinweeta AT gmail D0T com) or myself (sanderling AT symbiotic D0T ca) by November 13.
The Moth and Me will be on hiatus for the northern hemisphere winter, December through February. We’re looking for hosts for March 2010 and beyond next year. If you think you might be interested, drop me a note with the month you’d like and I’ll pencil you in.
Summer is drawing to a close for us here in the northern hemisphere. The weather is cooling, the nights are becoming cool though the sun still warms our faces during the day. We have another couple of months of mothing left to us, if we’re lucky, here in Ontario. Already we’re starting to see a shift of the species composition into the pinions and sallows of fall. Has the summer passed as quickly for you as it has for me?
Despite having missed a month mid-summer while I was wrapped up in moving, we’re already at edition #6 of The Moth and Me. We’re back on schedule with this one, or nearly, anyway. Because it was a shorter window since the previous one, there was less time for people around the blogosphere to post about moths. Still found plenty of great content, though! Check them all out, below.
Having decided that the carnival would be better off roaming than static, we’re looking for hosts for future editions of The Moth and Me. Since I hadn’t heard from anyone yet about hosting I put together this edition myself, but #7 (October) and #8 (November) as well as #9 (March) onward, still need hosts. Because it’s still very small it’s a pretty easy carnival to host, particularly compared to some of the larger ones like I and the Bird. If you think you’d be interested, drop me a note with the month you’d like to sign up for: sanderling [at] symbiotic [dot] ca.
Edit: We now have hosts secured for #7 (October) and #8 (November), but are still looking for hosts for #9 onward. October will be hosted by Lori at Reflections on the Catawba, and November will be by Susannah at Wanderin’ Weeta.
To start, I’m going to repeat a link that was featured last edition. National Moth Night is taking place this Friday and Saturday nights (Sept 18-19) in the British Isles. If you reside on that side of the pond, why not take part? From the official website:
“NMN is all inclusive and open to anyone to take part in, both expert and beginner alike. On the designated
date, participants throughout the British Isles are encouraged to see what moths they can find in their chosen location and the results are pooled into Britain’s largest survey of what species are on the wing. Much important information has been generated on National Moth Night, including new species for various counties, new sites for scarce species and records of rare immigrants; amazingly, in 2008 a population of the White Prominent (a species that had not been seen in the British Isles for 70 years) was discovered in Ireland.”
If you have any doubt that the British are way ahead of us North Americans in moth appreciation, just look at the assortment of field guides they have available to them over there.
Bridgham's Brocade, Oligia bridghamii
But why should they have all the fun? I propose that those of us who unfortunately find ourselves on the wrong side of the pond all join in anyway. Let’s make this a weekend of discovery – I think everyone, everywhere, should participate in National Moth Night on Friday or Saturday night, and then follow that up by flipping some rocks for International Rock-Flipping Day on Sunday. Let’s see what we can find! Don’t worry if you can’t identify everything (or anything) – this is about having fun and discovering new things!
If you want some tips on how to attract moths to your yard, check out the NMN site above, or go to the equipment and techniques page over at my moth blog, North American Moths. If you’re having trouble with identifying your bugs or moths, you can sign up for an account at BugGuide.net and submit your photos via their ID Request page (you have to log in first).
Celery Looper, by John of A DC Birding Blog
Just as our summer is starting to wind down here in the northern hemisphere, spring is starting to creep back upon the landscape down in the southern hemisphere. Duncan of Ben Cruachan, one of TMaM’s regular contributors from earlier in the year, is back again – and so are his moths. Edit: Check out Duncan’s latest post, including the delightfully stout and fuzzy cup moth.
Diane Tucker, Estate Naturalist for the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut, observes that moths have received some bad press over the last several centuries, and makes an effort to correct the misconceptions. Speaking of misconceptions, she also points out that the Wooly Bear caterpillar doesn’t really predict the winter… but you knew that, didn’t you?
A couple of weeks ago, John at A DC Birding Blog spent the night out with a friend, attending the Moth Night event held at a the East Brunswick Butterfly Park. The event had a good turnout, both by people and by moths. In attendance were multiple zales, armyworms and others. Finding himself on a bit of a moth kick, John also shares a few more spotted during daytime hikes.
Susannah at Wanderin’ Weeta, shares a couple of moths she encountered recently – a grass moth that was doing an excellent job of camouflage in the yellowed grass, and a Large Yellow Underwing that seems to share some features with Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother…
Although there’s lots of great moth content over at Martin’s Moths, I chose to highlight this “Pinocchio moth“. Martin shares with us the reason for the moth’s long nose.
It’s hard to pick any one post from Ben’s Essex Moths blog, so I’ll just direct you to visit the main page. Ben reports on his latest catch nearly every day – talk about dedicated mothing! He shares photos of some of his more noteworthy observations.
September Thorn, by Rob at Urban Moths
Rob at Urban Moth sums up his August mothing with some great photos of a few of his favourites, including such delightfully named species as Burnished Brass, Chinese Character, and Figure of Eighty.
Finally, to wrap up this edition, I made mention of what I believed to be a Bronzed Cutworm visiting my garlic chives in a recent Monday Miscellany, an example of a moth normally seen at night encountered at flowers during the day.
That’s it for The Moth and Me #6. Join us in a month for #7 – October 15, 2009. Don’t forget to send in your National Moth Night posts (or any other moth posts!) to myself (sanderling [at] symbiotic [dot] ca) or to October’s host, Lori of Reflections on the Catawba (loriowenby [at] gmail [dot] com), on or before October 13, 2009. We hope to be inundated!
It has been a hectic summer. Between the move (both packing up and getting settled) and a few other personal happenings the months have just flown by. Some things have fallen by the wayside as a result. My moth blog has been one of them, and The Moth and Me, the moth-themed blog carnival, likewise was put on the backburner. I had received no submissions, and lacking the time to actively go out to round up links myself, I’d decided not to worry about getting it done.
New blogger and moth’er Matt Sarver of The Modern Naturalist discovered the moth blog and was excited about the prospect of a blog carnival for moths. Noting that I had missed the deadline I’d indicated for posting the carnival, he offered to pull it together himself this month. I was pleased and grateful to accept his offer. Matt did a great job with The Moth and Me #5, which he is hosting over at his own blog. Make sure you pop over to check out the August edition.
Because I anticipate having less time to devote to the moth blog, and because I think it might foster more interest in the carnival, I’m sending the carnival roaming. Although initially I’d planned to have each edition hosted at the moth blog, I think it makes more sense to invite participants to host the different editions, which would hopefully be mutually beneficial in providing exposure to both the carnival and the hosting blog.
If you’re interested in being a host, it’d be great to have you on board! It’s a fun way to see some new blogs and also learn a bit more about moths. We’re looking for hosts for September (to be posted on or about the 15th), October and November this year, and March next year and beyond. If any of these months appeal to you, send me a note at sanderling [at] symbiotic [dot] ca indicating which month, and providing the name and address of your blog, or leave a comment here.
Lettered Sphinx, Deidamia inscripta, a spring specialty that should be flying soon.
I just wrapped up the April edition of The Moth and Me, and invite everyone to head over to check it out. The really busy mothing period in the northern hemisphere has yet to kick into gear, while the moths down under are starting to thin out, but there are still a good number of interesting mothy posts.
The next edition is May 15, with submissions due to me by May 13. We’re just starting to enter the really good spring mothing here in Ontario, and folks further south should already be seeing lots flying. I encourage everyone to go out one warm evening between now and the next carnival with a light bulb and a white sheet, and see what you get! I bet you’ll be surprised. (If you want to invest $5, try picking up a black light from Home Depot to double your “catch”! I find the compact fluorescent type work better than the incandescents.) If you don’t know your moths, that’s okay! You can submit the images to BugGuide.net, or otherwise blog about it and tag me in the post or leave me a comment, and I’ll see if I can help out with IDs (no guarantees, but I’ll do my best!).
seabrookeleckie.com 
