Welcome:

I hope these photos are helpful in identifying your moths and/or so you can appreciate the beauty of nature. Most of these guys fly at night and are hidden from our daytime routine. Some are hidden because we do not look at the small stuff. With the new digital cameras one can really get good pictures of the small ones. You will note that some moths look almost alike but there are subtle differences (some moths can only be told apart by genital dissection/DNA). On the other end there are moths that have a varied colored look between male/female or each other; but are the same moth. It is important to look at the “lines” on the wings.

I started photographing moths in 2008. My first setup included a Sony Cybershoot Camera, a sheet attached to a clothesline with clothespins and a “bug zapper” with the electric zapping mesh out of order. Through the years I have progressed to what I now use- a Cannon EOS 60D with a 180 macro lens and a ring flash, a sheet attached with clamps to a PVC rectangle frame, a tripod with a sheet wrapped and clamped around it, 160 watt self-ballasting mercury vapor light hanging off the tripod in front of the rectangle frame sheet and a 15 watt black light hanging from the backside of the framed sheet.

If you are photographing these guys that are “humped-up”; it is best to get a shot of the moth directly over the top looking down and to get a shot “leaning into the sheet” so you can get all the important markings along the wing edge by the sheet. If at all possible take your pictures at 90 degree angles from the moth to avoid distorting the moth picture.

When I started there were only 30+ moths of record for Pickaway County. I have found hundreds of moth species in Pickaway, as can be seen from the photos, todate the the Ohio Lepidopterist have not recognized them as records. In addition to Pickaway County records there are a few that are records for the state.

To get a larger picture of a particular moth just click on the moth picture.