Save the nighttime for the night-flying insects
- jjvanm
- Jul 19
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 20
Story and photos by Anita Westervelt
National Moth Week 2025 begins today through July 27. This year’s theme highlights micro moths: “the littlest moths you never did see,” according to their official website at www.nationalmothweek.org.
The term, micro moths is not a formal taxonomic grouping, but a convenient way to refer to small moths with wingspans less than three quarters of an inch. Small moths are often overlooked, although they can be quite colorful with interesting names, like Julia’s dicymolomia, Southern emerald, coffee loving moth, sunflower bud, omnivorous leafroller, orange virbia and the interrupted lineodes – a moth with wings that look like a woven tapestry.
Below from left: Ornate Bella, Orange Virbia and Eusceptis flavifrimbriat Moths. (Photos by Anita Westervelt)
There are 160,000 moth species worldwide, 12,000 in North America and 4,700 species recorded in Texas. Many have common names, but because of the large number of moth species, many have only a scientific name, like a common south Texas moth, Friseria acaciella, a moth that barely reaches an eighth inch long with its wings folded.
Moths fly at night and therefore are not as popular as butterflies that are readily seen during the day. Moths, however, can be attracted to black lights and white sheets and become highly visible where they can be photographed and studied.
Tonight, local nature parks are welcoming visitors to special mothing activities. McAllen’s Quinta Mazatlán will have moth-attracting stations and other family activities scheduled from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center and Alligator Sanctuary is also hosting an event tonight. The center will have mothing stations set up around their grounds from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with a special presentation while visitors wait for the sun to go down.
Contact your favorite nature center for scheduled events. Take a flashlight.
Night-flying insects landing on a moth sheet offer an opportunity to photograph them with a mobile phone or other camera. A white light, such as a flashlight, is necessary to counter the ultraviolet waves.
Scheduled public mothing events are to encourage participants to observe and document moths of all sizes, not just tiny moths, and in turn, contribute to national citizen science efforts.
Attend a mothing event and discover ways to set up a station in your own yard and document what is in your neighborhood. A station might be as simple as draping a white sheet and using an ultraviolet light bulb in an electrical fixture. Home mothing station examples are on the internet and the link above.
Below from left: A collection of night flying insects and moths on a moth sheet and two moth station set ups. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)
An interesting sideline to attracting moths with ultraviolet light is seeing what other winged creatures come out in the dark. Fascinating bugs with clever names may arrive on the moth sheets, like beetles, notchers, girdlers, caterpillar hunters, stink bugs, soldier flies, robber flies, assassin bugs and the famed Texas bow-legged bug.
If all this nightlife gives you pause, consider this: As night creeps toward a new dawn, insects, whether pretty or not, good or bad, help sustain a whole world of nature as an important part of the food chain.
For a list of local Moth Week events, visit this link:
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