The Massachusetts Moths Project (massmoths.org) database has now surpassed 300K records! The most recent update added >12,000 more records, mostly from iNaturalist, but some from other sources. This update includes four new species: Anatrachyntis badia (https://massmoths.org/moths/Anatrachyntis-badia), Scrobipalpa acuminatella (https://massmoths.org/moths/Scrobipalpa-acuminatella), Acleris kearfottana (https://massmoths.org/moths/Acleris-kearfottana), Episemasia solitaria (https://massmoths.org/moths/Episemasia-solitaria). The total is now 2,976 species. This new update has added 221 county records, with Franklin County gaining the most (39), and 3,301 additional grid square records (new dots on the Mass Moths maps). Three more grid squares now have >500 species (now 55 squares) and two more (now 6) have more than 1,000 species (Ware, Groton, Martha’s Vineyard (2) and Nantucket (2)). All squares lying in rural areas should be able to surpass 500 species, and most double that and more, so there is a lot still to be done. This can best be achieved by visiting new places, especially with lights at night, and by looking at the micros as well as the macros. See https://massmoths.org/summarized-project-data/
Data were downloaded from 29th June to 5th July (downloading large amounts of data is time-consuming!). More than 16,000 observations were found to have reached ‘Research Grade’ since the last update. About 2000 observations had to be excluded due to obscured or otherwise inaccurate localities. Another 2000 observations were excluded as they were found to be duplicate observations (same species, sometimes the same individual, at the same locality and date). If more than one photo is taken of the same species with the same locality and date, it is best to enter into one observation, and give the number of individuals seen under comments.
If your observation depicts anything other than an adult moth, please try to remember to annotate your observations with the stage. Always add the observation to the iNaturalist Mass Moths Project and use the Mass Moths annotations, as the standard iNaturalist fields cannot be downloaded. Adding the Mass Moths annotation ‘Larva’ automatically fills in the iNaturalist larval annotation as well.
Thank you for participating in the Mass Moths Project!

3rd March 2023 is the second anniversary of the launch of the Mass Moths website (massmoths.org)! Thank you to everyone who have supported and helped the project with data and photographs over the past year. Over the last year, 33,000 records have been added to the database and 23 new species have been added to the Massachusetts List. Not all records for 2022 are in yet, so another update can be expected before long.
The Excel data collection template (downloadable on the ‘Community’ page) not only provides a list of the species that have been found in Massachusetts, but now each species name is hyperlinked to its corresponding page on Mass Moths. Also, an additional column states which species pages have photographs.
The species pages on the Moth Photographer’s Group (https://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/Plates.shtml) also now include a link to the corresponding Mass Moths page (if it is on the Massachusetts List).
All comments and suggestions for improvement to the website are welcome.

3rd March 2022 is the first anniversary of the launch of the Mass Moths website (massmoths.org)! Thank you to everyone who have supported and helped the project with data and photographs over the past year. The site continues to be regularly updated and many more photographs should come online over the following months. Over the last year, 52,000 records have been added to the database and 37 new species have been added to the Massachusetts List.
All comments and suggestions for improvement to the website are welcome.

I have now entered larval substrate or hostplant data for all species on massmoths.org. All substrates recorded specifically from Massachusetts are now denoted by an asterisk(*). Please report any possible errors or additional Massachusetts data.

The larval biologies of 483 species (about 17%) are unknown (of which 97 are considered to be common to very common in the State) and many more have been only poorly documented. There is therefore plenty of scope for discovering and documenting new life histories. On iNaturalist, many larvae are photographed, but invariably no substrate information is given and often the larvae are photographed on a hand or on a road (or other man-made object). When posting a larval observation, please always try to enter the larval hostplant information, if known. Rearing wild-found larvae through to the adult is often the only way to confirm the species' identity and can provide valuable new information on the biology of a species.

The 2nd phase of the Mass Moths website is now live. Have a look at https://massmoths.org/. The site now has the full list of species occurring in the State and every species has its own page, with map and texts. Photos have so far been added to only very few species pages, but many more will be added in the coming weeks (I might be asking some of you to use some of your iNat photos). There is also a search function where you can search on anything included in the texts, e.g. foodplants. Some of the existing pages have also been expanded.

Suggestions for improvement are welcome and if any errors are found, please report them.

There is a possibility that the Box Tree Moth has been introduced to Massachusetts from Canada. Please look out for it.

See the report at this link:

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/stakeholder-info/sa_by_date/sa-2021/sa-05/box-tree-moth#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Department%20of%20Agriculture's,that%20was%20imported%20on%20nursery

This observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/72295317 represents a new Massachusetts State record. The next time you are in a white pine forest please keep a lookout for lumps of exuding pitch - they might be caused by this species.

Having just completed an update of the Mass Moths Data, I see that we have at least one moth record from every town in Massachusetts, except Millville, Worcester Co. and Middlefield, Hampshire Co. Would anyone be able to post some records from these towns this year?

We now have >194,000 records and 2890 species. More records will be added soon.

Steven

I am about to download data from this project to feed into the Mass Moths database and distribution maps. There are currently over 600 observations which have private or obscured coordinates. Unfortunately, obscured coordinates are too inaccurate to be used in the distribution maps, which are based on a 5x5mile grid. Therefore these observations will not appear on the distribution maps.

All iNat Mass Moths Project members have the option to allow the project managers to see the unobscured coordinates (an accuracy of +/- 2-3 miles from the actual locality is perfectly acceptable for the distribution maps). To enable this function, go to the project page and click on 'Your Membership'. Under 'Do you want to make your private/obscured observation coordinates visible to the project curators?', you can click 'Yes, no matter who adds the observation to the project'.

Please also ensure that your observation licences allow the use of your data in the main Mass Moths project. 'All rights reserved' will disallow their use. The licence type can be changed in your iNat profile - preferably choose any which is labelled 'GBIF'. Note, you can have a different licence category for your observation data and your photos. The Mass Moths project only uses the data, not the photo.

Thank you all for your contributions to the Mass Moths Project

Steven Whitebread

If you haven't already done so, it is time to start putting out the lights again! Overwintering moths will often appear on warmer-than-average nights, but the first moths of this year have now also started to emerge. For some of these early-flying moths we have very few records, maybe because not so many people are looking this early. A case in question is the Goat Sallow (Homoglaea hircina). This species emerges in Fall, but it seems to go into hibernation very quickly and it is hardly ever seen at that time of year. It flies again in March and April. One was found this week in Dedham (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71035825), only the third record in the Mass Moths database since 2000 and only the second locality in that time. We have several reports from Sturbridge and Leverett in the 1970s, so it probably still could be found across the State where aspens are common.