Hurray for me!!

For those who do not know, this is my rookie year of Mothing. Since the last week in May I have been setting up a UV Draw System in my backyard every 2 or 3 days a week. As of today I have ID 100 types of moths, not bad for only three months. What makes it better is that this photographer has no offical education in Entomology. I still have about 70 folders of unidentified moths to name but until then meet 99 & 100.

Number 99- Yellow Collared Scape Moth

Number 100- Spotted Beet Webworm Moth

There still is plenty of time left in the moth season, so I'm hoping to get to 200 by late fall. Wish me luck! Even though I have never met or talked to this person, I would like to thank Mr. Mark Dreiling for his PBase site & all those who have been as interested in mothing as I, over at Bug Guide.

Late Night Guest

Once again UV Light Trapping was slow, mostly Gnats again, a few "Skeeters", couple of Craneflies and this little drop in.

A Short-tailed Ichneumon Wasp, took me a bit of time to identify it, but with the help of Bug Guide it was easy.

So if the weather holds out tonight, the lights will be back up and with this humidity, maybe I'll be posting moth photos soon. Wish me luck!

Backyard Insect Rave

What do you get when you mix a blacklight & a white sheet? You get a whole lot of unknown Gnats & some Craneflies.

UV Setup

Now that it is warm here in the great state of New Jersey, the blacklight trap has emerged from its winter slumber. Last nights venture only drew in one unknown moth, but a lot of craneflies. I did ID one Fungus Gnat, but that was only due to the fact that I know what they look like. The junior entomologist in me still is not skilled enough to ID with out a picture and a book. Someday it will happen!
All in all it was not a bad night, trap ran from 9-11 pm, got one good image of a female Cranefly, but more will come soon.

Cranefly

I plan on running this setup every other night until the weather makes it impossible. So if you are driving through South River and see a blue glow its probably me.