Introducing the Australian Mothing News on Facebook
It will be 6 years come this March since I began a run at year-round mothing. I think the total Lep species count in iNaturalist at the time was little more than 800 (vs 5600+ today). And the bulk of the moth species with 2/3rds of the observations were a consequence of one person, Donald Hobern.
It became evident that some sort of national network of citizen scientists was the only way that we might make inroads into this dearth of knowledge. Not only within one's own lifetime, but given the haste with which the environment degrades, one could argue within the existence of the very species we are trying to reveal.
I continue to do what I can to promote this idea on iNaturalist. Now I am expanding into the launch of a Facebook page I am calling "Australian Mothing News". It is loosely modeled after an online birding news service I ran for a decade beginning in the mid-90's. It is open to the public but with restricted postings (presently solely myself).
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/657886238903373
Facebook participation is NOT required to read any of the page entries. However, posting, comments, and access to pdfs may be restricted to Facebook participants.
My mission statement reads ...
This page serves to bring to light the mothing discoveries made through the citizen science community of iNaturalist Australia. Membership will be open to the public initially. Posting privileges will be restricted to members participating in some form of citizen science (but not limited to iNaturalist). I encourage investigating these programs and how you may further our knowledge of Australian moths by becoming a participant. As you will read in these pages, every day people make real contributions right from their own backyard.
and therein, you will find links to iNaturalist Australia and the Atlas of Living Australia.
Initial news page offerings include ...
- Milestone reached with the number of iNat Lep observations; 50% of those in ALA, and comprising 75% of the human obs. in ALA.
- New Taxa Alert: presentation of new to iNat obs. involving two Metallarcha sp. from W.A.
- iNat entry of Trichiocercus with discussion of original descriptions
- link to an iNat journal offering under the Australian Moth Index, Geometridae.
- Downloadable crib sheet pdf file in my identification series. A one-page look at the 5 lenticular Ennominae frequently confused with each other {Gastrina, Gastrinodes, Gastrinopa, Aporoctena, Cryphaea).
Regardless of whether you make use of Facebook, I value your thoughts. So please feel free to comment. Whether to critique the page, or offer up potential news items.
@imcmaster @dustaway @nicklambert @dianneclark @dhobern @gregtasney @tas56 @reiner @peregrine80 @davidtng @ecosse28 @larney @dhfischer @hdavid @daviaker @wellsii @domf @kenharris @sarahcobbaus @jb2602 @johnlenagan @eremophila @koolah @paul2george @wambledyn @toddburrows @kdbishop69 @d_kurek @rogstanden @gumnut @thebeachcomber @nyoni-pete @dlync @jackiebeer @pmwhitington @wattlebird @tjeales @vuk @triciastewart @natashataylor @lifeisamazing @swainsona1 @bushbandit @ethanbeaver @kallies @clairecottage @a_kurek @rosewise @roserobin @suecee @simono @juliegraham173 @davemmdave @ellurasanctuary @rattyexplores @nedfisher @donna391 @dickw @petermarriott @markos1955 @laufamily @ianmcmillan @urliup-wildlife-sanctuary @mattcampbellaus @dj_maple @ladymidge @donnamareetomkinson @ken_cross @jimbobo @mhewish @cesdamess @cobaltducks @ladydawn @marietarrant @mariannebroug
and please let me know what you think.
cheers
Vic
Comentarios
Is the page up yet Vic? I just tried searching for it.
sorry, left the link out ... now added
Thank you!
Hi Vic, I stay off Facebook (mainly to avoid political crazies for my mental health), but appreciate you making the group. You could add my recent observation of Xylorycta ophiogramma to new to iNat obs., also from WA. :)
Victor sounds like a great idea, does this mean you will be the administrator and the one posting relevant articles that people send to you as it sounds like it is not a group but an administered page with controled registration that people can follow?
Regards John
@simono thanks very much, will do ...
@johnlenagan exactly John, basically a news service ... so much is going in with Australian mothing
on iNaturalist, this is my solution to getting the word out. In time, it is possible a couple of like minded individuals would be brought on board as fellow editors.
and without the need to do more than follow the link above ... no need to actually participate on Facebook!
Congratulations on this initiative, Vic. An excellent idea and one that should help keep us all up to date on what is going on and turning up.
Regards,
Jack
Sounds great Vic, keen to learn as much as I can.
I am in Vic. Thank you for this.
Greg
sounds like a great idea Vic
Applied to join, good job Victor :-)
Great idea Victor. Just joined.
Thanks for the initiative - it will open up another way of learning and contributing to moth knowledge
Great idea Victor! Appreciate your invite to join the group which I've done. I love discovering more about this amazing Moth World, & continue to learn more & more. Thank you :)
So appreciate all the effort you are putting in Vic to ensure a comprehensive record of moths. I really just fell into mothing when I was invited to join i-Naturalist by my Land For Wildlife officer, Todd Burrows. I had long held a plan to do a complete taxonomy of all biology on my 4-acre bushland block. This looked like the perfect opportunity. But I never expected that my observations were going to be 90% moths! (It is mainly because they come and rest on my front wall every night and sit quite still to have their photos taken.) I declared I would do one complete year and then stop (that year was up at Christmas 2021). I'm a little troubled by your report that you have been doing year-round for 6 years. This hobby is seriously addictive. One of the first things that shocked me was the number of moths that had been originally identified in the late 1800s - early 1900s that had no photos. I assumed that they must now be extinct, and that seemed like such a tragedy. But after reading your mission statement, I think maybe many of them are still out there waiting to have their photo taken. So I'll keep checking my front wall every night. @wambledyn
@wambledyn I have little doubt that some are extinct, sadly; particularly anything that relied on flat, coastal habitats so appealing to urban sprawl and farmland and wasn't very common to begin with. However, one consolation is that up until comparatively recently, photography relied on camera film that was costlier to develop, resolution was poor, and lenses suitable for tiny insects weren't accessible to everyone. I think anyone, in any part of Australia, will at some point photograph a long-unseen or undescribed insect eventually.
great idea, have joined :)
thought this would be a good place to post this, and that everyone here would be interested
this paper just appeared on my google scholar feed: http://www.eje.cz/pdfs/eje/2022/01/04.pdf
Title: 'The number of moths caught by light traps is affected more by microhabitat than the type of UV lamp used in a grassland habitat'
also last line of abstract: "The use of several weak lamps is more efficient and results in larger catches than the use of a single strong lamp"
That's interesting Thomas. This helps as it is easy to run weak UV lamps beside a stronger standard camping lamp.
In my own journey through hundreds of different sets using 10+ different lighting products, I had similar results. Although in the paper they continue to use the LepiLED which I found to be markedly inferior to the bug-zapper replacement bulbs.
Of bug-zapper replacement bulbs ...
Testing 15, 24, 30, 40, and 50 watts the sweetspot was 30 to
40 with probably 30 best bang for the buck. Marked improvement against 15 watts, but little gain beyond 40. I ran couplets of these in various combinations either side of a house for 2 yrs (6 seasons). One a typical residence with a suburban feel and the other a farm/ranch style home sandwiched between paddocks atop a tree-lined ridge. And between the two, the tree-lined ridge top outperformed in diversity by 20-40% across seasons.*
Perhaps in part due to "hill-topping" behaviour but I never teased apart the various contributing factors like shelter, distance to vegetation (Predation risk), micro-climate, etc.
I'm a bit late to this, but this is fantastic. It's difficult to track everything that's going on (just within iNaturalist) even if you are very active on the site, easy to miss so many things.
The PDF is great!! That sort of thing (visual) really works for me personally and I'm sure others.
I also appreciate that this is not an ID site, as I find the constant posting of common or blurry content somewhat off-putting at times.
Already enjoying the discussions and 'news items' on the site.
Cheers,
Nick
Great idea Vic! Just joined as well
Hi @vicfazio3 ...i have been thinking about the best way to respond to your post. We (my sons Daniel, Ben and I) have been watching you on iNaturalist ever since we started being interested in moths. This is because you gave up your time to look at our observations in the first year when we did a survey in our back yard and in the years since. I remember that you always found time to answer Daniels questions about moths and also provide advice about lamps, generators, setups and the like. I think what you are doing is agreat idea as it provides another way for people to learn about moths and to bring like minded people together who are interested in this area. Thanks, Tony
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