Conditions were perfect last Saturday for observing night-flying insects. At the second annual Moth Night sponsored by the Conservation Commission and Great Mountain Forest, Raymond Simpson led a discussion about moths, then offered an opportunity to observe them as they were attracted to UV lights and sheets.
Simpson, a naturalist from the Yale Peabody Museum and the Connecticut Entomological Society, recorded about 140 moths during the evening, including the Elegant Grass-Veneer, the Hickory Tussock Moth, and the Small-eyed Sphinx, Rosy Maple Moth.
The main group left the site about 10:00 p.m., but Simpson lingered until after midnight, when it started to drizzle. “The insects got quite dense as the night went on, but we never ended up with a big moth such as a Luna or Polyphemus Moth,” he reported. “We had a couple sphinx moths show up and we got several interesting species of smaller moths, including a few species that were the first iNaturalist records for Connecticut.”
iNaturalist is an international group of naturalists who share sightings with each other.