Moths of North Carolina

In Memoriam:

With great sadness, we mourn the passing of Bo Sullivan, one of the founding members of both the Moths of North Carolina website and the North Carolina Biodiversity Project. Moths were long a passion of Bo’s and he began his efforts to document the species of North Carolina in the 1970s; one of his major finds was a specimen he collected in 1974 of Hemipachnobia subporphyrea, a species that had not been seen anywhere since it was first found in the 1790s. He subsequently conducted surveys across the state, particularly the southern Coastal Plain, Fall-line Sandhills, and northern Mountains, all particularly rich in moth species . Bo was our chief taxonomist, and with his immense reference collection at hand – now deposited at the Smithsonian – he was able to identify nearly every species submitted to our website. His scientific expertise will be sorely missed, along with his good humor, hospitality, and comradery in the field. He was a good friend as well as a mentor to us all.

Welcome to the "Moths of North Carolina" website!

Scientific Name:
Common Name:
Family (Alpha):


Scoparia unidentified species by Stephen Hall
  

Cameraria caryaefoliella by Tracy S. Feldman
Pecan Leafminer Moth

Ctenoplusia oxygramma by Stephen Hall
Sharp-stigma Looper Moth

Clemensia albata by Stephen Hall
Little White Lichen Moth

Apantesis arge by Jim Petranka
Arge Moth

Phigalia titea by J.B. Sullivan
Half-wing Moth

Aims of this website

Our intention with this website is to shine a brighter light on moths.  We have two main aims in this regard:

• Provide information to people who are interested in learning more about moths.  This website aims to provide a compendium of all of the moth species recorded in North Carolina, with pictures of each species, information on species identification, general information about their distribution in the state (by county), their relative abundance in the state, their seasonal occurrence in the state, their habitats, and their food preferences, as well as additional comments on the species (such as notable facts, taxonomic issues, or population trends). County maps of occurrence are provided for each species.

• Build a base of public support for the conservation of Lepidoptera and their habitats in North Carolina.  We want to make clear the situation that faces moths and other species in terms of their continued survival in our state and share this information to help guide conservation decisions made by individual land-owners, conservation organizations, governmental agencies, and particularly by the public.  To accomplish these goals, especially where they involve moths or other species not usually given much public attention, we need to make our case from the best evidence we can muster, placing the plight of moths well within the context of the larger world of which both we and they are an important part.

How to navigate the website

To see a species account, start typing the scientific name in the Search Scientific Name field or, if a common name exists, the common name is the Search Common Name field. Names of species appear on the screen; click on the correct species that you want, so that the full name appears in the field box; then click Find (to the right). Once you are at a species account, you can navigate to the previous species in the checklist sequence by clicking on the Baltimore Hypena on the left, or to the next species in the checklist order by clicking on the Baltimore Hypena on the right. You can also get to additional species by entering text in either of the Search Common or Search Scientific boxes; click on the full species name; then click on the blue Find tab. A third way to get to another species (within the same Family) is to click the down arrow under the scientific name, where the box shows other members in the Family; click on the species of interest.

How to Identify a Moth

While we will eventually have identification tips included in the Species Accounts for all species that occur in the state, there are a number of other identification guides that already exist and are specifically tailored for identifying an unknown moth.  Information on these resources is included in the Identification Guides tab on the main menu bar located at the top of the Home Page.

How to become a Citizen Scientist

One of our main aims is to involve the public in documenting the distribution and habitat associations of the state’s moth fauna.  We therefore welcome records from anyone wishes to submit for species observed in North Carolina.  Information on how to submit records and the details we need to vet the records are included in the Citizen Science tab on the main menu bar located at the top of the Home Page.

Number of taxa with records: 3,072

Number of records: 198,986

Number of photos: 99,043


Citation: Hall, S.P.; Sullivan, J.B.; Petranka, J.W.; Feldman, T.; George, D.; Niznik, J.; Backstrom, P.; and Howard, T. 2024. The Moths of North Carolina [Internet]. Raleigh (NC): North Carolina Biodiversity Project and North Carolina State Parks. Available from https://auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/moths/index.php.