Interesting. Abbot's Sphinx would also be a lifer for me and is high on my list of must-sees. Temps here in the high country for the next few days are also forecast to be almost 20 degrees warmer than normal--today's high will be the warmest since mid-October. However, that does not necessarily translate to a surge in moth diversity. I think moth emergence like most natural biotic cycles is more correlated with plant phenology--the emergence of buds, leaves, and flowers of the local vegetation. Here, despite the warm temps, the vegetation is still in winter dormancy but showing signs of spring emergence--for example, red maples in just the past few days have started flowering. At 3400 feet elevation, my location is phenologically about 3-4 weeks or more behind lower elevation areas at the same latitude--so despite the May-like weather, most moths are not going to suddenly burst upon the scene. I had 4 species last night and about 12 individuals--all typical late winter/early spring fliers. That makes sense because we still have winter weather ahead of us; we typically have snows into early-mid April. I bet the vegetation at Ken's location is weeks ahead of what things are here and that is what is driving the moth emergence more than anything else. Merrill On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 6:54 AM, kjchilds <kjchilds@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > The 20 degree warmer than average temps really got things going > here....around 80 moths of 26 species. By far the best night of the year. > The highlight was an Abbot's Sphinx which is one I hadn't see before. > > Ken Childs > Henderson, TN > Chester County > > http://tinyurl.com/FinishFlagFarmsMoths > http://www.finishflagfarms.com -- J. Merrill Lynch Echo Valley Farm Watauga County, NC Elevation: 3,400 feet