BAMONA's blog

If you missed it in past years, plan to get involved this year!

Getting involved is easy: attend a National Moth Night event, start an event, join friends and neighbors to check porch lights from time to time, set up a light and see what is in your own backyard, or read literature about moths, etc. Visit the National Moth Week website for more information, or learn how to register.

If you take part in National Moth Week, you can provide your data to us. Take photographs of the moths you find, and come share your sightings with BAMONA. You will need to register for an account, but it is quick and easy to do, and logged in users can track their submissions. Simply take a photograph of a moth, and submit that information to us via our online submission form. Make sure to select "National Moth Week" under the list of Partner Projects.

We'll add the verified records to the database, maps, and checklists, and your data will become part of a growing dataset. To see the records that have been verified so far, visit the National Moth Week Data Explorer.

We are temporarily disabling the county map layer on species range maps. The map layer was very costly to maintain. We are working on developing an improved solution but it will take time and developer resources. If this feature is valuable to you please consider making a financial contribution.

Pollinator Week 2017 marks the tenth consecutive year of uniting the nation around the critically important issue of pollinator conservation. Pollinator Partnership (P2), which created and has administered Pollinator Week since its inception, announced that ALL 50 state governors (and many mayors), as well as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, have authorized proclamations supporting the national observance of Pollinator Week.

The Banded Orange Heliconian (Dryadula phaetusa) has been recorded in Eddy County, New Mexico. This subtropical species typically ranges from Brazil through Central America to central Mexico. Check out the verified sighting for details.

The 2017 Meeting of the Lepidopterists' Society will be held July 30-August 1 at the University of Arizona. Visit the website for more information: https://www.lepsoc.org/content/annual-meeting.

We are continuing our furious development pace as we work on the next version of the BAMONA website and underlying database. This enormous endeavor involves thousands of hours of unpaid work. The result will be an entirely responsive version of the BAMONA website, including the sighting submission and review process. We look forward to unveiling the new system and introducing users to new features.

Because two of us handle all of the development work on top of other project duties, communications via email have been slow. Sorry for the inconvenience! We are focusing on getting the system ready for a stable launch, and then we will dig out of emails.

If you like what we do and want to show your thanks, please consider making a contribution to our PayPal account: https://www.paypal.me/BAMONA.

With cooler temps approaching this Fall, it’s a great time to get outside and hike a trail. And if you live in the Piedmont of the Carolinas or Georgia, there is a new field guide that can help you identify common organisms you may see as you hike. The Field Guide to the Southern Piedmont is a picture-based identification guide to over 700 Piedmont species. It includes common animals, plants, fungi, animal tracks, skulls and bones, rocks, minerals, nature sounds, and even slime molds. The field guide is a free eBook intended to help the general public easily identify and learn about common organisms. The picture for most species is hyperlinked to a reputable website with natural history information. The field guide can be downloaded for free to any electronic device from www.uscupstate.edu/fieldguide.

If you missed it in past years, plan to get involved this year!

Getting involved is easy: attend a National Moth Night event, start an event, join friends and neighbors to check porch lights from time to time, set up a light and see what is in your own backyard, or read literature about moths, etc. Visit the National Moth Week website for more information, or learn how to register.

If you take part in National Moth Week, you can provide your data to us. Take photographs of the moths you find, and come share your sightings with BAMONA. You will need to register for an account, but it is quick and easy to do, and logged in users can track their submissions. Simply take a photograph of a moth, and submit that information to us via our online submission form. Make sure to select "National Moth Week" under the list of Partner Projects.

We'll add the verified records to the database, maps, and checklists, and your data will become part of a growing dataset. To see the records that have been verified so far, visit the National Moth Week Data Explorer.

The Lepidopterists' Society 2016 Annual Meeting will take place July 6-10 at The Nature Place near Florissant, in the mountains west of Pikes Peak, Colorado. Optional field trips will be held July 11-13.

Find complete information about the event on The Lepidopterists' Society website.

It is National Pollinator Week! Events are taking place across the US and its territories. Find out more.