Recapping our August Moth ID Night Hike
By Amy Langman and Shelby Coulton
Last month, we welcomed the French & Pickering community to our Thomas P. Bentley Nature Preserve for a special nighttime program – a Moth ID Night Hike! Using white sheets, black lights, the right placement, and a little luck, we were able to attract and identify a variety of insects that help diversify and strengthen the Preserve’s ecosystems.
This was the first year we successfully attracted moths using this technique, and they certainly did not disappoint… after 10pm when the program had already concluded. As discussed at the beginning of the program, most of the moth magic happens hours past nightfall. We saw an influx of moths following initial sightings of adult water-loving insects including mayflies, caddisflies, crane flies, beetles, and a few stoneflies.
Thank you to everyone who participated and helped spot all the neat sights along the path, like a caterpillar munching on a leaf! Keep an eye out for more Moth Nights on our event calendar, and remember to plant native, leave the leaves, turn off unnecessary lighting, and eliminate the use of pesticides. Our winged (and non-winged) friends will thank you!
If you walk within the Thomas P. Bentley Nature Preserve or Templin Woods Preserve, please join our iNaturalist projects and report your nature sightings. This data will be used by researchers for real-time scientific studies. Join the citizen-scientist movement!
Enjoy the entertaining common names of some of the species we spotted:
Some other fun sightings:
