2012 was pretty crappy in the way of my freelance business but it was a pure gold mine in the way of moths. My plan for Moth Season 2012 was pretty simple, set up a station 3-4 nights out of the week & record the species that showed up. While getting bored of just photographing them on the sheet in 2011, I did what any photographer would do and built a small portable studio. It is pretty fancy and cost a whole 20 dollars to make, unless you add in the cost of strobes.
My backyard moth station consists of a 400 Watt Mercury Vapor Light, a Queen Size white sheet and a lot of containers. The studio is make out of an old box, which I designed after a swoop table, one flash over the top and one flat panel flash under the white background. This sits right near the light on an old card table I picked up at a yard sale.
Using this system and my new light which was nicknamed MorningStar, I was able to photograph over 300 species of moths in my backyard alone. This count excludes Micro Moths and add in another 200 for field trips & moth nights elsewhere. Now not all of these moths were "lifers" but I like to reset my count every year. I feel that it is a fun way to keep me in tune with what's flying and also keep a population count or a high count for individual moth species per year.
So hear are some of my favorite moth visitors from 2012, in Latin Alphabetical Order.
1. Agrotis ipsilon - Ipsilon Dart (Male)
2. Amphipyra pyramidoides - Copper Underwing
3. Anicla infecta - Green Cutworm Moth
4. Anomis privata - Hibiscus Leaf Caterpillar Moth
5. Atteva aurea - Ailanthus Webworm Moth
6. Ceratomia amyntor - Elm Sphinx
7. Ceratomia catalpae - Catalpa Sphinx
8. Cisseps fulvicollis - Yellow-collared Scape Moth
9. Hypena baltimoralis - Baltimore Hypena
10. Hypena madefactalis - Gray-edged Bomolocha
11. Marathyssa inficita - Dark Marathyssa
12. Zale lunata - Lunate Zale
#8 is my favorite.
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