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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0637 Caloptilia serotinella.JPG
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4661 Packardia elegans 2.JPG
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4659 Packardia geminata.JPG
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9046 Deltote bellicula.JPG
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8858 Catocala crataegi.JPG
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