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Lynn Scott's
Lepidoptera Index |
Attracting Moths for PhotographyMost moths are nocturnal, and are attracted to lights. The local diversity of moths is dependent on the presence of a rich and diverse habitat, but regardless of the number of species on the wing in any given area, a majority of those present are likely to be drawn to lights at night. Many species are also attracted to various sugar bait mixtures, but I have done very little experimentation with moth baits. Day-fliers that sip nectar at flowers generally will be attracted to areas rich in sources of nectar. To the best of my understanding, the use of commercially available pheromones to attract moths is generally confined to pest control applications. At night, even an ordinary incandescent light will attract some moths. Consider how many times you have noticed night-flying insects on the outside of your lit windows at night. For the first two years of my moth photography, I relied only on our exterior incandescent house lights as an attractant, and managed to photograph several hundred species. In May 2002, while awaiting the arrival of an ultraviolet light, I hung out a circular fluorescent tube in a fixture that I clamped to the base of one of porch lights that flank our front door. Even this slight extension of spectrum and brightness attracted more moths and a slightly greater diversity of moths. At the end of May 2002, a 22-watt circular UV tube, designed for use in a bug-zapper, replaced the fluorescent light, and the diversity of moths seemed to explode! The porch lights were changed from incandescent to compact fluorescent in 2005, without any obvious change in the diversity or quantity of moths attracted. In 2005, we also rigged a straight blue 13-watt UV tube between our garage doors, together with a compact fluorescent light for general illumination, giving us two photography locations out of sight of each other, both within easy reach for quick "moth check" trips outdoors during the evenings. The two different light set-ups tend to attract slightly different sets of moths, and are far enough apart that they don't compete with each other. Depending on what is on the wing, the amount of moth traffic can vary considerably between the two light locations, especially for some of the micro species that tend not to fly very far from their preferred habitat and host plants. The lights serve the purpose of attracting moths, but the moths also need a place to sit, and our brick and cedar house walls and doors serve admirably. Moths vary considerably in their behavior around our lights. Some species rarely come to rest close to the UV lights, preferring to sit 8 or 10 feet away, while others normally settle within inches of the UV source. For purposes of photography, it helps to have wind-proof resting places; the freestanding sheet set-ups used by many collectors wave and ripple in the wind and make it difficult to get in-focus photos. In general, the best nights for attracting moths are warm, humid, moonless (no moon visible) and very calm. Moths do fly in the rain, but rain can present problems for keeping light fixtures and cameras dry. With the shelter provided by the eaves of our house at the front door, I can generally run the front door light on rainy nights unless there is heavy rain driving into the front of the house. The garage door light is not used on rainy nights. Through the evening, we make periodic forays outdoors to see what has arrived at the lights, using a flashlight for a better view of specimens that have come to rest in darker areas. Moths are photographed where they sit and sometimes, if they are lively, as they flutter up the walls and around the lights. Specimens of interest may be captured for additional photographs or study. In the course of an evening, I try to take one or more good identifiable photos of each species that I see, sometimes amounting to several hundred photos for the date. Depending on the time of year, I may record any number of species in an evening. Some nights produce no moths at all, especially the cool nights in very early spring and late fall; in contrast, at the height of our local moth season in June, I may encounter and photograph more than 100 species in a night. |
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