[tn-moths] Re: Moth Blitz in Watauga County, NC, 17-19 June 2011


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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