Diario de chris_lamb

Many birders have a spark bird that sparked an interest and got them into birds. I don’t know if people use the term spark moth for the moth that got them into observing moths. I have two! Last year (August 2022) a friend found a butterfly on the sidewalk. I took a picture and posted it on iNaturalist. The butterfly turned out to be a Polyphemus moth!

A week later I found another moth beside a door. This one looked more like my idea of a moth, except for the unusual black and white color pattern. This one turned out to be a Hitched Arches (Melanchra adjuncta) moth. Not only was it visually interesting, it was uncommon locally. At the time only one other Hitched Arches moth was posted for Stark County, Ohio. And only about 110 Hitched Arches for all of Ohio.

After that I bought a moth field guide and have expanded my Lepidoptera sightings to about 100 species. Several species were too small to get a decent phone photo. It’s certainly amazing what a couple of moths will lead to….