A Texas "Moth Man" Photographed 550 Species in His Own Yard

It's astounding how many different species of insects you can find even if you limit yourself to just a fairly small area.

In the book "Life on a Little Known Planet: A Biologist's View of Insects and Their World" [1] the author says that he used to set out insect traps every summer at his home in--if I remember correctly--New England, and every summer he would find species that were unknown to him. He'd then check the literature to identify them and every summer would find that he'd caught some that were unknown to science.

The author's research was on parasitic wasps and he was one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject, yet his summer traps would even trap parasitic wasps that were not yet known to science.

Think about that--this was not in some remote area that humans had barely reached where finding unknown plants and animals is something you'd expect. This was at a professor's house in a part of the planet that has been extensively explored for centuries.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Life-Little-Known-Planet-Biologists/d...

One of my previous advisors, while working on a PhD in sociality in insects, had a lot of time to spend in a front lawn in New York City. Trained to observe he recorded hundreds of species, on that lawn. Another insect curator I worked with (also from Texas), collected in a nearby park throughout his lifetime (still is I'm sure). Collected well over 1000 species of beetles, alone. Both were highly, highly trained, in a way that is increasingly disappearing. There are many, many other stories like this. That training included as much how and where to look as it did technical assessment (e.g. what you needed to see to identify species). Because of a whole pile of factors, stubborn old-timers, new technologies, lack of foresight and vision, we're losing that expertise rapidly. By the time we need answers from the vast genetic experiments that come from the lab that is Earth's evolution, we'll not know where, or how to look for them.

Here's his inaturalist profile: https://www.inaturalist.org/users/256619

19,715 observations of 3,892 species. Incredible contributor!

Moths are aliens in their looks and vast diversity. My backyard favorite is hummingbird hawk-moth.

For those that don't know, there's a double entendre on the story title.

The "moth man" is a well known urban legend in northeastern USA. A movie was even filmed on the premise [1] . A "texas mothman" playfully may suggest to some that the terror is "migrating"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mothman_Prophecies_(film...

It is pretty amazing the amount of diversity any small plot of land will show. I used to start my days going over my yard on my hands and knees hunting mushrooms, no idea how many I identified but it is certainly hundreds, someday I will count. Had a brief stint with insects and bugs but they turned out to be far too high strung for me after all that time i spent watching mushrooms grow.

> Moths aren’t just pretty to look at; they’re also important pollinators and a major source of food for birds and bats. But moths, like insects overall, are declining in both raw numbers and species diversity. Eckerman says recent studies have shown at least a 30 percent decline in insect abundance around the world over the past few decades. The likely culprits are pesticides and the loss of habitat to urban development. A threat to insects such as moths is a threat to the plants they pollinate and all the creatures above them in the food chain.

It's amazing the drop in biodiversity of insects that comes from habitat destruction, monoculture, pesticide (ab)use. As a kid we'd drive across the prairies and have to wipe literal goop off the windshield and side view mirrors at each gas station...

We planted native prairie plants throughout our yard roughly sequenced that something is always flowering. This morning I saw at least a dozen wild bees on one bunch of goldenrod* and nothing on the annuals next to it.

* https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services... (not invasive for my region)

On iNaturalist there are many people who monitor a specific area like their garden. Those contain links to such projects:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/home-projects-umbrella

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/museum-grounds-and-gard...

There probably are a lot more such projects on it.

As a kid, in Toronto, I joined the Junior Field Naturalists in 1951 and attended many lectures and exploration field trips. I found it very informative, however I became a Chemist later on. https://www.rom.on.ca/en/romrecollects/stories/keyword/junio...

I’m more impressed by the fact that 550 species visited his yard. Must have a really boss yard.

I just saw an Ailanthus Webworm moth this morning in Michigan and was struck by how different it looked from most insects I see here. They're native to the south but have apparently been starting to adapt to colder conditions and move further north thanks to the massive explosion of the horribly invasive Tree of Heaven, which is somehow still legal for nurseries to sell even though it is extremely aggressive and is a host for Spotted Lanternflies.

Anyways, since I've gotten into native plant gardening I have gained a huge appreciation for insects. You can find some really amazing things in your own yard if you pay attention.

This man is probably one of the very few who have read hundreds or possibly thousands of obscure Wikipedia pages about various species and families of moths. Some of the most obscure Wikipedia pages are about species of moth.

I like this sort of thing. Someone exploring his own little environment. It seems like the sort of thing we should be hearing more about. Maybe some high schools should start promoting some of this.

Texas yard is the size of a small country

Nice! I've got a house iNat project with an ever expanding pollinator garden so I can pick up more species without having to travel. I'm at ~250 Lepidoptera.

Almost completely irrelevant, but I was astonished one day as I walked through the outskirts of Dallas: there was a yard nearly at eye level with a retaining wall, and the grass was overflowing with snails.

I don’t know how many times in my life I’ve actually seen a snail outside of water, it’s very rare for me, but this was effectively an infestation. Surreal.

Texas Monthly can go toe-to-toe with the New Yorker.

I saw a plume moth the other day and thought it was an IUD lol

his "yard" seems to be pretty huge

keep a little moth under my pillow for the "moth man"

OT: it’s amazing how fewer bugs, inspects, etc exist today than when I was a kid.

I still have vivid memories of car trips and the windowshield & the front of car - being completely covered with dead bugs.

I have to imagine all those bugs were food for moths.

It’s only a Moth Man if he comes from the Point Pleasant region. Otherwise it’s just a weird entomologist.