Counting moths alongside Dartmouth’s nature experts
Caleb Butler assists in identifying unique moth species. BY DOUGLAS MCCULLOCH
Mark Mello demonstrates how to separate moths among a pile of dead insects. BY DOUGLAS MCCULLOCH
Aiyanna Lopes, 16, tries to catch a butterfly with a net. BY DOUGLAS MCCULLOCH
Mark Mello shows the group his moth catcher. BY DOUGLAS MCCULLOCH
Caleb Butler assists in identifying unique moth species. BY DOUGLAS MCCULLOCH
Mark Mello demonstrates how to separate moths among a pile of dead insects. BY DOUGLAS MCCULLOCH
Aiyanna Lopes, 16, tries to catch a butterfly with a net. BY DOUGLAS MCCULLOCH
Mark Mello shows the group his moth catcher. BY DOUGLAS MCCULLOCH
Aiyanna Lopes grabbed a pair of tweezers and got to work sorting through the pile of dead moths lying in front of her.
The sixteen-year-old, New Bedford Global Learning Charter School student was tasked with identifying unique moth species, and sorting them into collection dishes for identification and analysis. The variety of creatures filling the petri dishes surprised Lopes.
“They were all sorts of different colors,” Lopes said. “I learned that there’s more than one type of moth. I always thought there was only one.”
She was one of about 40 regional students who rose early on May 20 to help Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust better understand the environment at Wernick Farm, which opened in 2016.
“It’s a very diverse property,” said Dexter Mead, executive director of DNRT. “It has old fields, pine woods, swamps, and ponds. It has diversity that other properties do not.”
The students — hailing from Dartmouth, Dighton, and New Bedford schools, as well as from Buttonwood Park Zoo programming — worked with scientists during the four-hour “BioBlitz” with the goal of identifying as many species of animals and plants as possible.
“It’s an opportunity to give kids hands-on experience. It’s science in action,” said DNRT member Lorraine Granda, who started organizing the event with peers in late 2015.
By the day’s end, the group had identified 101 moth species, 85 plants, 27 birds, 10 butterflies, 10 reptiles and amphibians, five aquatic insects, three dragonflies, three fish, and eight mammals, said Linda Vanderveer, DNRT’s land manager. That number is expected to rise, as some samples could not be identified on site and will be sent away for further analysis, she said.
Mark Mello, research director at the Lloyd Center, led the moth identification project with a homemade bug catcher that he had set up the night before.
“Even something like that collects only 25 percent of what’s in the area,” Mello said.
To make the catcher, Mello fitted a bucket with an ultraviolet light and filled it with a moth-attracting acid. He hopes to build a complete picture of the moths that call Wernick Farm home.
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