BAMONA's blog

Warren Krupsaw has provided BAMONA with some excellent close-up photographs of moths. Check them out in Warren's gallery page, on species pages, and in the Image Gallery.

While many photographers focus on capturing the details that assist with identification, Krupsaw describes his work as "Moth Portraiture." To see all of Warren's work, check out his online gallery. You can learn more about his techniques from his article at The Photo Argus.

The Xerces Society is thrilled to announce the two winners of the 2014 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Awards. The DeWind Awards are given to individuals engaged in studies or research leading to a university degree related to Lepidoptera research and conservation, and working or intending to work in that field. The following two students were selected:

Anuj Jain – National University of Singapore, Department of Biological Sciences
Habitat enrichment for butterflies in tropical forest and urban landscapes
Deforestation and habitat degradation are primary conservation concerns, reducing and fragmenting critical habitats and resources for tropical insects. As a result, many threatened insects cannot maintain their own populations and need intervention in the form of habitat enrichment. Experimental studies that manipulate key insect resources and quantify insects’ response are lacking, despite these studies’ great conservation potential. Using Singapore as a model system, our research will quantify the effect of a habitat enrichment strategy by using larval host plants and nectar plants for four butterfly species (two locally threatened) with different habitat requirements, studied across mature forest, degraded forest, and urban landscapes.

Yu-Hsuan Liu – North Carolina State University, Department of Biological Sciences
Do corridors increase gene flow in butterflies?
Many butterflies are threatened by habitat fragmentation, which causes loss of genetic diversity in their populations, deteriorating long-term survival, and diminishing restoration success. Corridors, which reconnect fragmented landscapes through strips of habitats, are a promising conservation strategy to reverse these adverse effects. However, there is not enough support for the theory that corridors promote sufficient gene flow to assist in butterfly population persistence. I propose to use two well-studied species, the buckeye (Junonia coenia) and variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia), in the world’s largest corridor experiment at Savannah River Site as a case study to test whether corridors will be an effective long-term conservation strategy for butterflies.

Joan Mosenthal DeWind was a pioneering member of the Xerces Society. A psychiatric social worker by profession, she was also an avid butterfly gardener and an accomplished amateur lepidopterist. Her contributions of time, organizational expertise, and financial support were essential to the growth and success of the Xerces Society over the past 40 years. Joan also had a keen interest in young people, supporting what became the Young Entomologists’ Society. In Joan’s memory, Bill DeWind established a student research endowment fund in her name.

For more information on the DeWind Award, visit http://www.xerces.org/dewind.htm

The current BAMONA website was launched in 2011. Since then, approximately 330,000 individual sightings have been added to the database. That's over 2,000 sightings each week, and more than 300 per day!

Thank you to all submitters and coordinators who have long supported our project.

This web atlas provides a wealth of information on 193 rare species in these insect groups, all made possible by hundreds of records from around the state. These records were amassed over two years from the Natural Heritage Program database, the field work of Natural Heritage Program inventory biologists and cooperators, and in many cases literature sources and museum specimens. The public can use this web atlas to: 1) enter locality name and receive a summary of all rare species in these groups by locality in Virginia; 2) enter a species or common name, and get summary information on its physical appearance, its food or host plants, its habitat requirements, conservation status; 3) view a current county presence map for Virginia; and more. This information, including photos, is provided in printable factsheets for every rare species in the Atlas. This Atlas was developed by the DCR Natural Heritage Program and the DCR Public Communications Office, with funding and initial project vision provided by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, through a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service State Wildlife Grant. Check it out at http://www.vararespecies.org.

BUTTERFLY RESEARCH INTERN (1) needed for a biodiversity study from June 1st to August 5th, 2014. The intern will assist in conducting transect surveys for a study on local species richness and distribution of eastern butterfly species. Surveys are conducted by walking transects and identifying butterflies either by sight or with nets. Sites are located throughout the Williamsburg area, in local parks or managed properties. Along with surveying, duties include data entry, field gear maintenance, and habitat assessment. Surveys start mid-morning, around 9:00am and go until early evening, 5:00pm. The intern will be part of a small team in the ACER lab of Dr. Matthias Leu and have the opportunity to assist in other projects during free time. Field truck is provided for surveys, however a private vehicle is recommended for personal travel outside work. Pay is $3,500/stipend, and housing is provided at the campus of William & Mary for students currently enrolled in an undergraduate program.

Qualifications
*Must be a student at an accredited university, currently enrolled in Spring and Fall 2014.
*Preference for applicants who have had experience identifying eastern US butterflies
*Other important qualifications are an interest in ecology, conservation biology, enthusiasm for field work, and the desire to gain diverse experience sampling flora and fauna. The intern should retain excellent data quality and good spirits, while working alongside other field crew. Biting invertebrates, including mosquitoes, chiggers, and ticks, will be present.

Contact Person
Send a letter of interest, resume, and 3 references in a single PDF file to Angela Zappalla (acer.hires@gmail.com). Please put BUTTERFLY RESEARCH INTERN in the email title.

Application deadline: February 28th, 2014

Researchers have concluded that the exhalations from tobacco hornworm caterpillar spiracles may assist in defending them from predation by wolf spiders: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/12/27/1314848111.

The Xerces Society is pleased to announce the release of Pollinator Plants of the Central United States: Native Milkweeds, a comprehensive guide to using the native milkweeds of the lower Midwest and Central U.S. in habitat projects and gardens. Xerces’ Project Milkweed is working to promote the benefits of including milkweeds in habitat plantings for monarch butterflies, pollinators such as native bees, and other beneficial insects. This new guide makes it simpler for land managers and gardeners to select—and obtain—the most appropriate species of milkweeds for their locale.

Pollinator Plants of the Central United States: Native Milkweeds de­scribes the importance of milkweed to wildlife, provides an overview of milkweed establishment practices, and profiles numerous species that are commercially available and can be incorporated into seed mixes and planting plans. Five milkweed species that have special conservation status are also profiled.

The guide was developed by Brianna Borders and Eric Mader of the Xerces Society, in collaboration with Allen Casey (USDA-NRCS Missouri), John M. Row and Rich Wynia (USDA-NRCS Kansas), Randy King and Alayna Jacobs (USDA-NRCS Arkansas), and with Dr. Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch.

Download the guide from the Project Milkweed web page, http://www.xerces.org/milkweed/.

You can also find it in the relevant regions of the Pollinator Conservation Resource Center, http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-resource-center/.

This guide was produced thanks to funding from the Monarch Joint Venture and with the continuing support of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Butterfly Conservation's Seventh International Symposium will be held at Southampton on the theme: The ecology and conservation of butterflies and moths.

The Symposium will include the latest science of butterflies and moths and how science can help to reverse the decline of butterflies and moths, and their habitats. The programme also provides opportunities for Butterfly Conservation members and others to present papers or posters on practical conservation work and contributions will be welcomed. The Symposium will end with a forward look of future challenges, including the impact of climate change.

Keynote speakers include Prof. Chris Thomas (York Univ, UK), Prof Christer Wiklund (Stockholm Univ, Sweden), Dr Tom Brereton (Butterfly Conservation, UK), Dr Bob Pyle (Naturalist and writer, USA), Scott Hoffman Black (Xerces Society, IUCN Butterfly Specialist Group, USA) and Dr Thomas Merckx (University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). The proceedings will be published as a special issue of the Journal of Insect Conservation, deadline for paper submission will be Friday 2nd May 2014). .

Mark your calendar: National Moth Week is July 20-28, 2013!

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 registration is quick and easy to set up, and logged in BAMONA users can track all of their observations online. 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 BAMONA's growing dataset.

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) receives awards from time to time, and we are always so busy with day-to-day operations that we forget to mention them to our users, contributors, and coordinators. While it does not include all past awards, we will try to keep the new Awards page up to date in the future. To everyone who supports BAMONA, we want to extend our sincere appreciation. BAMONA would not exist without you. These are your awards too.