National Moth Week

It’s that time of year again, National Moth Week (Saturday July 18, through Sunday, July 26), time to look at the great variety of night flying insects that we call moths. Moths form the largest portion of the group of insects known as Lepidoptera, the remainder of the group are the butterflies, which evolved from day-flying moths.

There are approximately 12,000 named species of moths in North America and an unknown number of as yet undescribed and unnamed species. Moths are essential to a healthy ecosystem: moth larvae are an extremely important food for nestling songbirds, moths (not mosquitoes) are a primary food of bats and many plants depend on moths for pollination. Only a handful of moths are what might be called pests; the vast, vast majority are either innocuous or beneficial.

While some moths are small and drab, others are large and colorful and others are a combination. Here’s a sample of interesting moths –

Moths are in serious trouble from pesticides, superfluous lights at night and habitat loss. Lawn care chemicals, recreational mowing of large lawns and outdoor lights when nobody’s awake have serious adverse impacts on moths – and those impacts spread through the ecosystem.

To sample the moths around your house leave an outside light on for a couple of hours after sunset and see what moths are hanging on the wall. Then don’t forget to turn off the light so moths can spend the rest of the night doing what moths do.