On Wednesday evening, July 26, three Normanites (including @ehjalmarson) gathered in a field near a wooded area south of Lake Thunderbird and setup a bright light pointed at a white table cloth draped over a ladder. As the sun was setting we took off on a walk and looked for moths and other creatures in the area. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was hoping maybe I would see a handful of familiar species and, if I was lucky, a few new ones. We immediately encountered a large moth that was unfamiliar to me (Sad Underwing, Catocala maestosa) and continued to see other species we didn't know - as well as a mouse and at least 2 species of frogs.
When we circled back to our light setup we were excited to find that a number of moths and other insects had been drawn to the light. We stayed in place for another 2 hours, photographing every new species we saw. In the end, we documented about 30 distinct species of moths, a few of which we have not yet identified. The most common moth we saw was Grape Leaffolder (Desmia funeralis), followed by Olive Arta Moth (Arta olivalis), and Light-ribboned Wave (Leptostales ferruminaria).
Other interesting sightings include:
Banded Net-winged Beetle (Calopteron reticulatum )
Lesser Ivory-marked Beetle (Eburia mutica)
Rhynchomitra microrhina
It was a very enjoyable and fruitful evening! We all added several species to our life lists.
Maybe Maple Webworm Moth (Pococera)
2nd individual of this species
Many individuals of this species
packardii or plumbea
Pretty sure this is the correct ID
possibly Garden Webworm Moth (Achyra rantalis)
Probably biplagialis
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