Greetings! It's time, once again, to celebrate National Moth Week, July 23 - 31, 2022 (https://nationalmothweek.org). Make sure to look extra hard during the week for moths and upload your observations here on iNaturalist. Happy mothing!
The results are in: during National Moth Week (July 17 - 25), Oregon Coast Insect Inventory (OCII) catalogued 126 observations of moths, which represented 79 different species from 9 superfamilies. Not too shabby!
In comparison, last year during Moth Week, OCII catalogued 116 observations, with 64 species from 7 superfamilies of moths.
I thought some of you would be interested in a citizen science project called Caterpillar Count!, which comes to us from the University of North Carolina. They describe the project as "a citizen science project for measuring the seasonal variation, also known as phenology, and abundance of arthropods like caterpillars, beetles, and spiders found on the foliage of trees and shrubs."
Check out their website for more details: caterpillarscount.unc.edu
Let's celebrate Moth Week, July 17 - 25, 2021 (https://nationalmothweek.org). Make sure to look extra hard this week for moths and upload your observations here on iNaturalist. Happy mothing!
We're smack-dab in the middle of moth week! Keep an extra special lookout this week for moths, and don't forget to add your observations here on iNaturalist! Any moth observation made on the Oregon Coast will automatically get uploaded to this project.
For more information on Moth Week, check out http://nationalmothweek.org
This project was initiated on July 6, 2020 and includes all insect, myriapod, and arachnid observations to date within the Oregon Coast region. The purpose is to organize, tally, and track these organisms as part of a general effort to document and call attention to them. Unfortunately, there has been a general worldwide decrease in insect abundance and diversity, for reasons not fully understood. But factors likely include pesticide use, loss of habitat, and climate change.
I hope that this project encourages people to pay attention to insects and related animals and to think about the important roles they play in our coastal ecosystem. If you'd like to get involved in this project, please contact us!
