On Saturday, June 22 we held a Moth Night at Oxley Nature Center in Tulsa. This was the largest event I have been involved in, with around 80 people in attendance. This is thanks to the large network of nature enthusiasts that attend events at Oxley and the promotion they did for this event. We had 5 observing stations setup and had some great finds for the evening, even though we were dealing with a nearly full moon, which was competing with our artificial lights. It looks like we tallied right around 100 species of moths for the evening.

It was really good to meet some people in person with whom I have only been acquainted virtually through iNaturalist or Facebook.
Bob Webster (@xpda)
Ben Gruver (@myxfit)
Lisa (@lmm3629)
Lynn Michael (@zebraweeds)
Mathew Radford (@mathewradford27)

And I think we even got a few new people hooked on mothing, right Mathew!?!

Our moth highlight of the night was probably the Pink-striped Oakworm Moth (Anisota virginiensis).

Another good sighting was this Brindled Shawl, which Rick Parker photographed. It's the first one submitted in Oklahoma on iNaturalist. +1 for the state inventory

Shortly before we packed up for the night this male Giant Stag Beetle (Lucanus elaphus) captured everyone's attention and admiration.

All submitted observations from the evening can be seen here.

We'll definitely be back for another moth night at Oxley Nature Center!

Posted on June 25, 2024 09:30 PM by zdufran