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Field guide: Moths of Western North America
This week marked the long-awaited publication of Seabrooke Leckie’s Moths of Western North America field guide, and I was positively chomping at the bit to get my hands on a copy. What a glorious book it is! Really beautiful. And absolutely chock full of information. I’ve been glued to its pages since it arrived. This
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2026
Well, well. Would you look at that – 2026 is already here. I haven’t had much to post over the last few months. Normally, the non‑mothy season is when I read up on new genera, find target species, and plan trips for the coming year. Not this time. Work kept me very busy, and most
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Back to Cache Creek, Aug 2025
Last month’s trip to Cache Creek went so well, I decided to head back for a couple of nights. The first night I set up traps on the side of the mountain just SW of Cache Creek. This area burned down in the 2017 Elephant Hill fire, so there’s 8 years worth of growth dotted
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Lillooet, Cache Creek – July 18-21st
Last weekend I took an extra day off to celebrate the start of National Moth Week and did a 3-day trip up to Lillooet and Cache Creek to see what I could find. The first night wasn’t terribly successful. I set up my nets at one of my usual haunts by the Lillooet airport, which
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Golden, BC, May-June 2025 – Part 2: Micros
The first part covered the notable macros I found on the trip, now let’s turn to the little guys. These actually contained many of the more interesting finds. Lots to cover, hoo boy. Here goes. * = lifer** = new for BC on iNat Cydia fletcherana * ** Let’s start with this fella. Brilliant. I
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Pseudobryomima muscosa
It’s satisfying that after 8 years of actively observing moths at my home, I still see new species. When I got back from my trip to Golden last Saturday I set up traps to see which of the locals had returned. In the morning I found a particularly perplexing little Noctuid which I’d never seen
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Golden, BC, May-June 2025 – Part 1: Macros
Home at last! I’m back from a 5 week trip to Golden BC. En route, I stayed in Merritt and Salmon Arm setting up traps at both locations, but the bulk of my time was spent mothing around Golden. Today I got some time to crunch through my observations, so here’s a quick trip summary
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Platyedra subcinerea
Picked up my fourth lep lifer of the year this afternoon: a Platyedra subcinerea, or “Cotton Stem moth”. Or as my wife would say: “yet another boring brown moth”. It was wedged in under the fold of one of my moths sheets. Very pretty shade of brown, if you ask me, and those black marks
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Updates; Back to the Cape
The photo above is of a Lithophane amanda (Amanda’s pinion moth), taken this morning. These are flagged as Vulnerable in BC by NatureServe, and the first time I’ve gotten one on the west side of Bowen Island. Lots of miscellaneous moth-related news! Let’s start with… UK Trip I just got back from week in the
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Two new Eupithecia
The great warming continues. Each day brings more insects out. The last couple of weeks has added two new Eupithecia to my list. They’re a tricky genus. There are dozens in BC, and many are very hard to tell apart. Well, let’s add a couple more. The first, Eupithecia maestoso, looked sufficiently different from any
BC Moths 