A Multitude of Moths - New Hampshire Fish and Game Department

Small and gray, grand and garish ...moths of all kinds thrive in New Hampshire’srare pine barrens habitatBY ERIC ALDRICHIt’s just after midnight on a balmy night in April. We’rein the pine barrens forest of Pine River State Forest inOssipee, trying to stay awake. It’s pitch dark, exceptfor the headlamp on Jeff Lougee’s head and the weirdblue glow of a black light illuminating a small sheethanging between two trees.Lougee is a stewardship ecologist for The NatureConservancy’s New Hampshire chapter and he’s here, inthe midst of pitch pines, scrub oaks and lowsweet blueberry, determined to collect moths.He’s spent the past four hours watching thesheet, waiting for moths.When a dark gray moth finally flutters onto the sheetand settles for a moment, Lougee carefully scoops it upwith a Mason jar and quickly screws on the lid. “Lookslike a pine pinyon moth,” he says. “You can tell by theselittle back markings on the forewing. In New Hampshire,this moth is only found in the pitch pine forests of CarrollCounty.”On this night, Lougee collected only five specimens— a very slow night of “mothing.” By comparison, awarm, moonless night in summer in the pine barrens willyield as many as 200 moth specimens. Those moths areamong an estimated 2,500 moth species in New Hampshire,11,000 species in North America and 110,000species in the world. By contrast, there are only 28,000species of butterflies worldwide (mostly in the tropics)and fewer than 1,000 species in the U.S. and Canada.From Plain to GorgeousMany moths, like the one Lougee just collected, arefairly nondescript — entomologists jokingly call themLGMs or Little Gray Moths. But many are quitedistinctive and colorful. You’ve surely admiredsome of the glamorous celebrities of the mothworld, like the cecropia moth, with its fuzzy reddishbrownbody, orange and white markings and distinctiveeye spots on the wings. In the spring, maybe you’ve seenthe rosy maple moth, with its bright pink and yellowwings. And of course, there’s the luna moth, the granddiva of moths.“Some of them are outstandingly beautiful,” saysDonald S. Chandler, a professor of zoology at the Universityof New Hampshire. “Some of them are big andcontinued on next pageEric Aldrich is director of communications for The NatureConservancy of New Hampshire.© ERIC ALDRICH PHOTOSWILDLIFE JOURNAL • September/October 2004 15

© ERIC ALDRICH PHOTO© VICTOR YOUNG PHOTO© VICTOR YOUNG PHOTOJeff Lougee of The NatureConservancy sometimes collects asmany as 200 moth specimens in asingle night.Betterunderstandingof moths will leadto better habitatmanagement.Cecropia mothPainted lady butterflycontinued from previous pagebeautiful, like the luna moth. Andsome of them are tiny and delicateand colorful.”The most beautiful, if you askChandler, are the so-called micros —so small you could fit four or five ofthem on a penny. Under a microscope,their splendor shines. Bands ofgold or silver. Patches of iridescentblue. Verydelicate, brilliantand littleunderstood.In fact, manyentomologistsdon’tbother collectingthem; they’re toofragile, too hard to identify and too hard to preparefor collections.As curator of UNH’s insect collection, Chandlerhas tediously identified and mounted hundredsof moths. Within the collection’s 700,000 insectspecimens — from beetles to flies — are some2,000 moth species. These are moths, mind you,not butterflies, which occupy a much smallernumber of nearby drawers.Moth orButterfly?Three micro mothson a dime.While there’s no foolproof rule fordistinguishing moths and butterflies,both members of the orderLepidoptera, here are some clues:• Moths tend to rest with wings flat,while butterflies, with some exceptions,rest with wings folded upwardsover their back.• Moths tend to be nocturnal or dusk/dawn flyers, while most butterflies flyduring the day.• All moths have a bristle or bunch ofbristles, called a frenulum, lockingthe forewing and hindwing together;butterflies don’t have this feature.• Most moths have tapering, featheryor hairlike antennae. Butterflies havea knob at the tip of the antennae.© ERIC ALDRICH PHOTOFrom Egg to MothButterflies and moths share a fairly similar lifehistory. Both go through four stages: egg, pupa,larva (or caterpillar) and adult. On reaching itslarval stage, a moth caterpillar will find a quietplace where it will make the transition to an adult.Some species spin a silk cocoon attached to abranch. Others make the transition underground,or go inside a folded leaf. Inside, the caterpillarbecomes a pupa and its body transforms into a sortof soup. Its metamorphosis into a moth can takedays, weeks or even months, depending on thespecies.Once emerged, the adult moth has four wings:two on top called forewings and two “hind” wingsunderneath. Most adult moths live only two weeksor so; others a few days or a few months. Andwhile some will eat during this time, others willnot, focusing instead on reproducing and avoidingpredators. Once the female lays eggs, there’slittle else for her to do.Much of the moth’s role in the ecosystem —especially among New Hampshire’s species — isto eat, according to UNH’s Don Chandler. Only afew species here are pollinators. Most fill theirecological purpose as caterpillars ... eating andeating. They’re like little gardeners, he says. Eatingleaves and other pieces of plants stimulatesplants to grow. Other moth caterpillars help recyclethe soil by eating detritus.Habitats and MothsYou can find moths virtually anywhere in NewHampshire. Different habitats produce differentmoths, in both abundance and diversity. Oakforests, for instance, have a relatively huge varietyof species and abundance of individual moths.Chandler has collected certain moths in theSeabrook sand dunes and others in silver mapleflood plain forests near Dalton. He’s collected232 species in Spruce Hole kettle bog near Durham.Some of the rarest moth species in the state arefound in the remnant pine barrens, such as thosein the Concord and Ossipee areas. According toDale Schweitzer, a New Jersey-based moth andbutterfly expert with The Nature Conservancy,pine barrens (like those found from Maine throughthe Mid-Atlantic states) “are the habitat for globaland regional moth rarities. Pitch pine/scrub oakbarrens are the place to look. There’s no otherhabitat that comes close to having the rarities.”In the Concord pine barrens, which is habitatfor the endangered Karner blue butterfly, Chandlerhas collected some 578 moth species. N.H.Fish and Game has also done scientific monitor-16 September/October 2004 • WILDLIFE JOURNAL

ing of moths, according to Celine Goulet, a biologistwith the Department’s Nongame andEndangered Wildlife Program. Better understandingof all the moths and butterflies in thisdistinctive habitat will lead to better management,Goulet said. And that may ultimately preventcommon moths from becoming uncommon andrare moths from vanishing altogether.Managing Moth HabitatsThe same is true for the Ossipee pine barrens.In the summer of 2002, University of Vermontgraduate students Claire Dacey and JonathanKart took an intensive look at the Ossipee, withDacey looking at the habitat and vegetation andKart looking at the moths. The project was organizedand sponsored by The Nature Conservancy,which has protected 2,000 acres in the Ossipeepine barrens since 1988. Seven hundred acres ofthat are classic pitch pine/scrub oak habitat.That summer, Kart collected more than 2,500individual moths, comprising 246 species. Ofthose, six species he collected are consideredrare. They have strange and exotic names, such asZanclognatha martha and Glena cognataria.Since Kart’s initial work, the Conservancy’s JeffLougee has done the follow-up collecting, gatheringmoths at times and places that Kart couldn’t.Thousands of years ago, after the last Ice Age,pitch pines and scrub oaks sprouted from thesandy plains of what’s now Ossipee, Freedom,Madison, Tamworth and surrounding towns. Whathas long been part of that ecosystem is fire. Pitchpines thrive in fire-prone ecosystems becausetheir seeds can rapidly colonize and germinate insoils exposed by fire. And fire rejuvenates thesoil, clearing the way for the next growth of lowsweetblueberries and scrub oak. Fire keeps thedistinctive scattered openings of the pitch pine/scrub oak ecosystem.But there hasn’t been a good burn in theOssipee Pine Barrens for more than 50 years.Understandably so: there are homes and businessesthroughout this ecosystem. The NatureConservancy is preparing to carefully restore fireto this ecosystem starting in 2005. The plans arepainstakingly detailed and involve measuringfuel loads, creating fire breaks and devising plansfor controlled burns.“Fire will essentially go through and removeold, dead scrub oak and replace it with fresh,young growth,” Lougee said. “It’s that new growththat the caterpillars feed on. The sheer quantityand quality of the scrub oak goes up dramatically.Fire and mechanical treatment also open up thecanopy. The additional solar energy helps the cater-Know YourMothsMoths come in many families orgroups, but most belong to just a few.There are the silk moths (Saturnidae)— medium to big moths, most of whichdo not feed as adults. Good examplesare the luna moth or the io moth.Then there are the sphinx moths(Sphingidae), which are probably theeasiest to recognize. They’re mediumto large and have long bodies. They’realso fast fliers; some hover and feedfrom flowers. Good examples are thefive-spotted hawk moth, the laurelmoth and the hummingbird moth.Another big group is the Arctiidae,which includes tiger moths. Somehave bright colors, a warning sign tobirds that they’re distasteful. And thereare the owlet moths (Noctuidae). Thisis the biggest family, with nearly 3,000species in North America. Most arenocturnal, like miniature owls. Manyhave a triangular shape, such as thecommon oak moth.There are a few others. Forinstance, even the casual moth observerwill recognize Lasiocampids,which include the tent caterpillarmoths. There are the tussock moths(Lymantriidae), which includes thenotorious gypsy moth; you may remembera horrendous outbreak oftheir caterpillars in New Hampshire inthe early 1980s. Needless to say,these prolific invaders do not requireany special habitat protections.pillars. So, after fire, there’s more food,better food and better habitat. What’s goodfor the caterpillars is good for the moths.”And in the long run, what’s good for the moths isgood for the special natural communities thatsustain them.Luna mothHummingbird mothCommon oak mothBanded tussock mothGypsy moth caterpillar© VICTOR YOUNG PHOTO©ROGER IRWIN PHOTO© JOHN HIMMELMAN PHOTO© JOHN HIMMELMAN PHOTO© ERIC ALDRICH PHOTOWILDLIFE JOURNAL • September/October 2004 17