We held our first Moth Party since the beginning of the pandemic on Saturday.   It was a hot day – near 90 – so no one wanted to hike.  But we ate fabulous potluck food, talked, and watched moths.

Anne made the most spectacular food contribution – Prairie Foccaccia.

 

Yellow Coneflowers and Indian Paintbrush were made from vegetables, but the Monarda had real Monarda petals.

 

Waiting for it to get dark…

 

Once it got dark, we looked at and photographed moths that came to the lights, and Mike projected my photos onto a screen so people could see them better.

 

 

 

Marcie – photographing a moth.

 

The first big moth was an Elm Sphinx.  It was very friendly – willing to sit on people’s hands and easy to photograph.

 

 

Lots of creatures are attracted to lights at night – not just moths.  Here are some of the non-moths we saw.  (Click on any photo to see a larger version.)

 

Here are the moths.  (Click on any photo to see a larger version.)