Sorry for being a little late. My wife at major surgery this morning.
Moth Study Site update 4/6
I operated the moth study site at Winged Deer Park three
evenings this past week. I took advantage of the warmer weather to focus on
experimenting with different locations for setting up the lights. We hope to
have a permanent light installed soon. When it is in place we plan to change to
early Sunday mornings (one hour before sunrise) to conduct the study. For now
we are moving to Saturday evenings (a half hour after sunset).
I would like to thank Buck Lewis of Bristol, TN for lending
me two mercury vapor bulbs and an ultra violet light. Buck is a retired
entomologist who specialized in moths at the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington D.C. He has been a big contributor of time and equipment for insect
study in our area. His lights proved to be very helpful at the Winged Deer
study site.
Over the three nights I photographed 30 species of moths.
That’s pretty good for the first week in April. Numbers should go up in the
months ahead. There was also a nice assortment of beetles, flies, leafhoppers,
caddisflies, lacewings, wasps and other insects.
The Common Eupithecia Moth (Eupithecia miserulata) in the family Geometridae,
is one of the
most frequently seen species I see at the lights. I took the attached photo at
the Winged Deer study site on April 2nd. The genus, also known as
pugs, is a large group that can be difficult to identify to species. They all
have the same characteristic shape with their wings held out at 90 degrees from
the body. The larvae feed on a wide range of plants, including coneflower,
asters,
willows, cherry, juniper and clover.
The next outing at the study site will be Saturday evening
April 12th at 8:15 pm. If you would like to join me please contact
me at Larry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
or (423) 773-9234. Volunteers are needed to make this important project work.
No experience is required, just the desire to learn, have fun and contribute to
science.
Larry McDaniel
From: makwdpark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: larrycmcd@xxxxxxxxxxx
CC: ConnieDeegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Monday Moth
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 15:33:38 +0000
Larry, do you have the Monday Moth write up and photo for today? Thanks, Mary
Ann
Think green: Only print this e-mail and any attachment if necessary.
Attachment:
Common Eupithecia.JPG
Description: JPEG image
