There is a famous story about a noted British lepidopterist who as a boy with a developing interest in butterflies and moths happened to note a listing in a magazine for a new book titled The Mother’s Handbook. No image of the cover was shown nor was anything else about the book described. Sure that such a tome would be of great value to his study of the more generally nocturnal of the Lepidoptera he saved his money and sent away for a copy by mail. When it arrived, he discovered to his disappointment that it contained not even a single reference to moths.
Fortunately the North American Moths Backyard Inventory, a relatively new blog brought to my attention by the always informative DC Birding Blog, contains an abundance of references to moths, as well as images, links to relevant websites, and a host of other useful as well as interesting information to all who are interested in the larger portion of the Lepidoptera who simply don’t have quite the positive public image as their more popular relations that are denominated as butterflies.
According to their own explanation, the “North American Moths Backyard Inventory (NAMBI) was developed with the goal of creating a database of the moths of North America through citizen science contributions.” As one interested in moths who is frequently frustrated at the general lack of accumulated knowledge available about them (many, perhaps thousands of species, have never even been described and named), any project seeking to learn more about them gets my support in any way it can be of use.
However in addition to the citizen science work organized under the aegis of the North American Moths Backyard Inventory, there is quite a lot of interesting moth-related information for the naturally curious, including some superb imagery demonstrating quite clearly why moths are not all the drab, nondescript, nocturnal little creatures they are all too commonly thought to be by the general public. Just spend a few minutes scrolling through the images and you’re bound to be captivated – and, it is hoped, induced to read deeper into the text that accompanies all the photos. Who knows, you could end up becoming a proud mother yourself.
