white sheet lighting ~ 09/28/13 ~ Rocky Creek

white sheet lighting

Not wanting to miss out on socializing in order to check for insects, I moved the sheet set-up closer to the edge of our evening hangout.  Our camp clearing is at least 50 ft around at the base of a hill and within 15 ft of Rocky Creek. It wasn't ideal considering our camping lanterns competed with light output, but the access for our fellow campers was great.  I experimented a little by placing the light a foot away from the sheet and resting it against the sheet.  It really didn't seem to make much difference.  I got a little more variety of moths and opiliones in this location, but there still wasn't very much activity. I suspect if there were a lot, my fellow campers may have freaked out.  All in all it was casual fun, and I think I might do it again.

moths ~ 09/28/13 ~ Rocky Creek

 

Here are all the moths from night 2 of white sheet lighting.  Again, I'll add the moth IDs at a later time.  I welcome anyone who wants to help me ID these coastal moths in the comments.

I'm surprised at how sentimental I became while sorting through these moth photos.  The feeling reminds me of "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  My only published papers were 6 checklists of moths with Sonja Teraguchi.  I googled to see if it's out there on the internet, since the pubication predates Y2K.  Hey, it's on eBay.  Cool.  I think?  It's also referenced in a paper by Roy Rings in The Great Lakes Entomologist.  Very cool.