We had a great party, with lots of moths, and lots of wonderful friends to share them with.

The party is to celebrate National Moth Week, which started a few years ago to get people to look at and appreciate the beauty of these nighttime creatures.  It’s actually a world-wide event, and people from 42 countries, and from every U.S. state are participating this year.

Here are some scenes from our party, followed by pictures of the moths.  We invited people to come early, to take a walk.

Anne, Emily and Dale on the Indian Grass bench

Tracy and Jim

And then there was the potluck dinner.

Anne with her cake

Anne’s moth cake (moths are Lunas, White-spotted Sables, and generic noctuids)

The scene around the moth sheet.  We had two sheets set up.  One was more protected from the wind, so it attracted more moths.

The moths landed on people, as well as the sheets.

We saw other creatures on the sheets too.  Lots of mayflies

A Sexton Beetle – with mites riding on it.  These beetles bury small dead vertebrates in the soil and feed on them or feed them to their young.  The mites help keep down fly eggs and maggots that might compete with the beetles for the food.

Here the beetle spread its wings.

Katydid

Tree Hopper

Weevil – one of the Nut and Acorn Weevils

And one of our Lunas!

It was a little windy, but otherwise good moth weather – warm and humid.   I tried to take photos of all the species we saw.  I don’t have names on all of them yet – I’ll add them as I figure them out.  Click on a photo to see a larger image.