Moths of Ohio

I'm personally trying to photograph and send to the Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) website every moth species that appears in Knox County. I send these photographs for identification to BAMONA's website: www.butterfliesandmoths.org.

I would like people to join me in Knox County and for people in all 88 counties of Ohio to do the same--at least go out to your porch lights at night once in a while and photograph some or all the different moths you see and send them to BAMONA. BAMONA lists them in databases for each county and this helps researchers, besides giving us satisfaction.

Experts say that the average county-size area should have about 500 species of moths. I know of only one county that comes anywhere close to that total, because one of the regional experts for BAMONA lives there (Wayne County).

In less than two years, with no knowledge, I have added 50 species to the Knox County list. There were 13 species when I started--typical for the other counties, except for Wayne. This puts Knox in 7th place among the counties, with the pitiful number of 63 moths! Volunteers are needed and it is a great feeling for novices like me to add species to a database.

People so far are more interested in butterflies than moths. The number of butterflies for Knox County is very realistic, unlike the total for moths.

I have 11 of my 50 moth identifications in a moth guide of Knox County on my website: www.doncomis.simplesite.com. Click on "Moths of Knox County" in the menu.