Last night we set up for another night of moths and other insects at the Natural Areas Preservation site at South Pond. This was a Washtenaw Audubon Society event, and it was well attended.
People standing around chatting as we waited for it to get dark.
Some of the people listening to Susan and Heidi talk about what to expect.
The Moon was high when the moths began to appear. As the Moon was approaching full we got to dispel the popular myth that mothing is better a Moon closer to new. Ultimately we had 40-50 moth species.
Excitement began to rise as numbers increased. Susan, Heidi and I rotated between three of the four sheets helping people identify some of the insects that appeared.
It was fun talking about the Ailanthus webworm moth and the relationship to “tree-of-heaven” which is in the genus Ailanthus. Late in the event we had a grape leafroller moth which utilizes grape (Vitis) as a host plant.
At the start of the evening Susan had a walking stick land on her. I coxed it off and got it on to a sheet where I was able to show all of the people the big critter.
As we were taking down the sheets and lights Susan spotted a very interesting moth that Heidi, Lyle and I were able to get photos of. Once again out last moth of the evening was possibly the best.
This might be a new moth for all four of us. We’re still working on a positive ID, as there are several species that are quite similar. I am inclined to think that it is a honey locust moth (Syssphinx bicolor). A great find to end the event.
More later…
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