Mothing at Moore

Moore Wildlife Area (MWA), more or less in west central Lambton County, is one of the accessible places where I have been mothing a couple of times of late. It is owned by St. Clair Region Conservation Authority, and I obtained permission to set up my black light to see what creatures I could entice to my light.

Since I use my vehicle for the source of battery power, I just set up in the parking lot. There is a nice variety of tallgrass prairie vegetation immediately adjacent, as well as some more forested habitat, and it isn't far from the Sydenham River which is known for its high quality of aquatic life, so I anticipated some decent action.

The following are some of the moths, big and small, and various non-moth critters that I have collected at MWA via my camera. There are a number of others that are either too worn for positive identification or that I just haven't managed to get identified through the resources I have available. But this group will give a very good idea of the diversity of moths and other things that I photographed during two visits and a total of about 4-5 hours. Some are extremely small, perhaps only 6-8 mm in length. You can get an idea of which ones are the smallest by comparing with the weave of the sheet.

Adjutant Wainscot

Aster-head Eucosma

Broken-lined Hypenodes

Chickwed Geometer

Corn Earworm

Definite Tussock Moth

Diamondback Epinotia

Filbertworm Moth

Hemlock Looper

Large Tolype

Newman's Brocade

Obscure Pondweed Moth

Packard's Wave

Pondside Crambid

Reddish Eucosma

Ruby Tiger Moth

Along with the moths are various hoppers, including grass, leaf, plant and tree, as well as beetles, mayflies, and such.

Brush-legged Mayfly (with egg cluster trailing at the posterior)

Citrus Flatid Planthopper

Northern Flatid Planthopper

Pygmy Grasshopper

Saddle-backed Leafhopper

The Partridge Bug, a planthopper

Treehopper (Telemona sp)

And more moths....

Small Baileya

Spotted Grass Moth

Streaked Orange Moth

Swordsman Dart

Triangle-backed Eucosma

Turtlehead Borer

White-marked Tussock Moth

 This next one has not been confirmed, but is likely a type of borer in the Papaipema genus

Rigid Sunflower Borer

Yellow-headed Scape Moth

As much fun as it is to see and photograph all the invertebrates that are attracted to a black light, the real work comes afterwards in sorting them out and identifying them. Processing the photos takes several steps and a lot of time too. But it is worth it, given the huge number of species that over time, will come to the light during the season, especially when black lighting in a variety of habitats. However I am way behind in all of this and putting out a blog post! I've been at Rondeau on three occasions, at Skunk's Misery once, and have even found a reasonable diversity in my own back yard. And given the still quite excellent weather conditions for the next little while, I plan to get out a few more times for blacklighting......