In the Two Months Since the last update another 700 photographs have been added to the Living Moths Plates Series, including 300 new species. Those plates now hold more than 1,530 species represented by 3,800 of your photos.

Ian Kimber's excellent website displays photos of about 200 species that also occur on this side of the Atlantic. Many of these species are not widespread in North America and have not yet been represented on the Internet by photos taken here of living moths. Ian, along with 38 of his contributors, have graciously permitted their photographs to appear on the MPG series of Living Moth Plates. All photos derived from UKmoths Website displayed at MPG show, beside the photographer's copyright notice, a link back to UKmoths' systematic index, along with the species number employed in the UK. Our thanks go out to our UK and Continental allies for their generous support.

In addition to Ian Kimber, UKmoths contributors include Charles Baker, Jon Baker, Matthias Biere, Jeff Blincow, Malcolm Bridge, Graham Catley, Tony Davison, Keith Dover, Rob Edmunds, Shane Farrell, Gianpiero Ferrari, Charles Fletcher, Stephen Foster, Nick Greatorex-Davies, Wim Geraedts, Roland Gill, Alison Green, David Green, Perry Hampson, Brian Hancock, Chris Harlow, Paul Harris, Donald Hobern, Ben Kruijsen, Mark Lawlor, Andy Mackay, Chris Manley, Andy Musgrove, Steve Nash, Keith Naylor, Tim Norriss, David Painter, Rob Petley-Jones, Pedro Pires, Ben Smart, Ian Smith, Chris Steeman, Nigel Whinney, and Rosemary Winnall.

New Plate for Plume Moths:  Debbie Matthews, who specializes in the Pterophoridae, has agreed to referee a plate for the Plume Moths in the Living Moths Series. This has resulted in all of the Plume Moths on Unidentified pages being resolved, at least tentatively, and we can now show about 20 species names instead of just 3 or 4, and with a much higher degree of probability that they are assigned properly.


Bob Nuelle, Jr. is probably known to most moth photographers for his several websites dealing with Lepidoptera and Texas insects. Bob is a long-time collector in Texas and neighboring states and plans to contribute hundreds of photos of specimens in his collection. His high-quality photos will appear on a series of plates titled Bob Nuelle's Moths of Southwestern North America. Many of these are also found in the east and will appear also on the eastern plate series for macrolepidoptera.


Speaking of Plates: The long-awaited reissue of Charlie Covell's Field Guide to Eastern Moths is in the final stages of plate approval and will be printed very soon. Anyone who has contributed 50 photographs used on Pinned Specimen or Living Moths Plates will receive a free copy from MPG just as soon as a case of books is delivered.

Janice Stiefel wrote to offer some photos for the Living Moths Plates. That's one of her larva photos at left. So far, Janice has sent in about 130 photos which often include a beautiful series of larval stages or instars. Her notes that accompany these photos remind me very much of Gene Stratton-Porter's book "Moths of the Limberlost." The only difference is that Janice lives in Wisconsin, not Indiana, drives a car instead of a horse and buggy, and can take digital color photos or her subjects rather than having to paint them. She keeps overwintering eggs and pupae in her fruit cellar.

Over the years Janice has photographed about 550 species (so far identified) including more than 110 species of larva. These will eventually show up on the Living Moths Plates. We are also just beginning to design a website-within-a-website for Janice Stiefel's Moths of Wisconsin's Door Peninsula. Stay tuned in here.


Welcome New Contributors: Mike Boone (SC), Jay Cossey (ON), Stephen Cresswell (WV), Claire Curry (TX), Joyce Gross (CA), Ben Grubbs (NC), Peggy Hamlin (ID), Bill Lupardus (TX), Debbie Matthews (FL), Jim McClarin (NH), Paul McNelis (PA), Dave Pelletier (CT), Bryan Reynolds (ND), Janice Stiefel (WI), Tam Stuart (NJ) and Bev Wigney (ON).

Unid. Page 1, has been recycled and includes photos from a variety of sources, and Hugh McGuinness, Jerry Fauske, Tony Thomas and Michael Sabourin continue to contribute identifications, earning the gratitude of everyone.

You don't have to wait until the end of the season to send in photos of your unidentified moths. Do it daily or weekly and you'll enjoy knowing what many of them are much sooner. You can also post photos of your unidentified moths at the interactive BugGuide.Net. An additional group of persons monitors the postings there. Most of the moth photos posted at BugGuide.Net are also picked up for use here. Please remember to post square photos so that they will meet the requirements of the MPG Plates.

Your Unidentified Moths: Send them in. Any number, 1 to 100 or more, just pick the best photo of each species that you can't identify. Once a photo has been identified it will move to the live moth archives where it can help others to identify their moths. See the Submit a Photo page.