Last year I travelled quite a bit in the province seeing a whopping 642 species of moth – year in review post here. This year I was planning on doing more of the same.

I’m spending most of February in Ghana, then possibly heading back to Ecuador in Sept/Oct (the moths were incredible there, but the political unrest is a concern – I’ll monitor), but the rest of the time will be spent in the province. I’ll certainly revisit my usual haunts of Prince George and the Okanagan (I really want to see the fallout from the fires there), as well as revisit Lillooet and Merritt, but I’ll try out some new zones too. First, I have a month planned in Creston – it’s extremely under-mothed and I think I can get some great stuff there. I had planned on doing a Haida Gwaii trip, but that got kiboshed after a discussion with the wife. There’s also Vancouver Island, Golden, Revelstoke, Bella Coola, Prince Rupert… oh, to be wealthy. Sure be nice to return to the Peace as well, but that’s an awfully long way away and time is scarce, so I doubt that’ll happen.

Main goal: get my life list up to 1,000 BC moths. This is actually extremely modest. I’m already at 947 (933 confirmed) and even a couple of well-judged weekend trips should garner enough new stuff to meet that target. Still, it’ll be a very pleasing milestone. Realistically I’d hope to get up to 1,200. I guess the milestone after that will be to see half the species in the province! Whoah. A few more years of this and I may even know what I’m talking about.

Secondary goal, work on the diurnal moths a little more. My focus has been mostly on the nocturnal species, and there are a lot of species I could see by spending more time looking in the day and not getting sidetracked by the birds and flora.

Here on Bowen, I’m going to expand my mothing locations. The habitat here is pretty same-y on the whole (small island covered in trees) but I have noticed slightly different catches between my house + the west side of the island. Last year, Metro Vancouver purchased a large chunk of land near Roger Curtis lighthouse to form a new regional park. I’ve been setting up moth nets on that land for some time, so a biologist from Metro Vancouver reached out to me to touch base. My observation data helps provide a baseline for species in the park, but going forward I’ll need a permit to set up traps on their land. She’s going to help with the whole thing so I’m cautiously optimistic it won’t be a blocker. It may even open up possibilities of new locations to set up traps. I just drove around the Cape this morning to look at potential spots…

Anyway, should be a fun year. Can’t wait for the Spring.

---

Misc targets (will add to)

• Clemens’ Sphinx Moth. Projected to be in NE BC, but none appear to have been found here yet. Flies in June, early July.
• Chelis beanii (Bean’s tiger moth).
• Orthosia mys. Home, fall.
• Sesiidae. Moth lures are being acquired!