[tn-moths] Re: Moth Blitz in Watauga County, NC, 17-19 June 2011
- From: klight10@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: tn-moths@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:14:13 +0000 (UTC)
What a great weekend you had! I hope you'll put the photos on your Picasa site!
Kris Light
----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Merrill Lynch" <jmerrilllynch@xxxxxxxxx>
To: ncsc-moths@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, "tn-moths" <tn-moths@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Jeff
Lepore" <jlepore775@xxxxxxx>
Cc: "Parker Backstrom" <parker.backstrom@xxxxxxxxx>, "Bo and Ashley"
<sullivan14@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 12:13:47 PM
Subject: [tn-moths] Moth Blitz in Watauga County, NC, 17-19 June 2011
Parker Backstrom came up for a weekend of mothing at Echo Valley this
past weekend. My family was away visiting relatives so it was a great
weekend of moth mania--we pretty much didn't do anything but mothing
and eating--sleep was a distant third in priority.
We started on Friday night with two extra sheets in addition to my
standard setup and went at it from dusk until 2:30 am. Spent most of
the daytime Saturday lounging around taking catnaps and compiling the
list plus going through i'ds. Then Sat. night we tried remote mothing
at a wetland site about a half hours drive away in Ashe County--that
didn't work too well due to high winds and we gave up after about an
hour of mothing. Then back to Echo Valley where we mothed until about
1 am. Sunday morning we had about an hour of mothing before the
sunrise cafeteria opened for the local house wrens, towhees, and
juncos. Parker left later that morning and I did another round Sunday
night by myself until around 11:30 pm.
Our final tally for 3 nights of mothing was 192 species plus about 10
unidentified micros. Highlights were seven species of slug moths:
Early Button, Abbreviated Button, Jeweled Tailed, Elegant Tailed
(lifer for both of us), Yellow-shouldered, Yellow-collared, and
Crowned. The Gold-spotted Ghost Moth made another appearance Sunday
morning (probably the same individual I saw earlier in the week) and
we had a cool new species of Gracillariidae, Caloptilia serotinella.
Two lifer pyralids, Crowned Phlyctaenia and Hollow-spotted
Blepharomastix, were a surprise plus two lifer Hermininids, Lettered
Zanclognatha and Slant-lined Owlet Moths.
My favorite of the weekend was Bog Deltote (Deltote bellicula), a
lifer for both of us. I think Parker's may have been Hawthorn
Underwing (Catocala crataegi); a lifer for him and the first Catocala
of the season for Echo Valley.
We considered this a training exercise for Moth Night coming up next
month. Based on our experience this weekend, I think 200+ species in
a single night is certainly in the realm of possibility. Some of my
favorite images from this weekend's moth platter follow.
--
J. Merrill Lynch
Echo Valley Farm
Watauga County, NC
Elevation: 3,400 feet
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