Spark Moths
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….
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I'm happy to learn the term spark moth from you! I haven't gotten into birding so I've never heard that before.
I have always had a general interest in shells, mushrooms, and moths, but there are certain critters that aren't easy to ID to species that fascinate me.
For shells, it was the banded tulip. For mushrooms, it's red-capped Russulas, and for moths it's Doryodes. I've written journal posts about all of those and my journeys learning about their differences.
I'm having a lot of fun trying to take photos of micro moths with my phone lately. I have an iPhone X from 2017 and will spend a LOT of time taking up close glamour shots when I can. You take great moth photos! Thanks for sharing your spark moth observations :)
Thank you for commenting. You have diverse interests and that’s great you are documenting the tiny moths. They are probably underrepresented because they aren’t easy to photograph. I’ll have to try getting photos that aren’t blurry or learn the terminology to describe them. The banded tulip is beautiful. I can see how that would prompt an interest in shells.
It took me a bit of trial and error to find how many inches to hold my phone away to help it focus on the moth, and I usually take several shots and most are blurry, haha.
I was reading this iNaturalist blog post (https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/76606-thank-you-for-helping-generate-most-gbif-records-for-most-species-since-2020) from a couple months ago and one of the comments by @michelarrivee made me think of your journal post and spark moths.
"I have been an ornithologist converted to a nocturnal entomologist (watching moths) for a few years. This activity allowed me to participate in the training, in 2019, of a group of people interested in this activity (including several experienced ornithologists). The formation of this group, supported in part by the Montreal Insectarium, was encouraged to publish their observations on iNat in the Quebec Moth Atlas Project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ atlas-of-the-night-butterflies-of-quebec ). Here are some statistics taken from the atlas before and after the formation of this group of observers in 2019:
in 2017, there were 1,809 sightings and 1 observer with more than 100 sightings;
in 2018, there were 3,596 sightings and 6 observers with more than 100 sightings;
in 2019, there were 15,158 sightings and 17 observers with more than 100 sightings;
in 2020, there were 36,069 sightings and 31 observers with more than 100 sightings;
in 2021, there were 46,771 sightings and 32 observers with more than 100 sightings;
in 2022. there were 47,329 sightings and 35 observers with more than 100 sightings;"
I just think it's amazing what a group of birders turned mothers can do, and how cool that you're doing it too :) a hundred species of lepidopterans is awesome! Keep up the great work, @chris_lamb
Most of the mothers in my county are also birders; not sure about Ohio as a whole. Or, have another second interest like odonata or mushrooms. I haven’t met any shell naturalists. Mine are jumbled in a shoe box, no data. Thanks for sharing and happy mothing and shelling!
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