National Moth Week (www.nationalmothweek.org) is held worldwide celebrating the beauty, life cycles, and habitats of moths. Everyone, everywhere can become a Citizen Scientist and contribute scientific data about moths. Moths are one of the most diverse and successful lineages of organisms on earth but for many species, including many of the most common, but little is known about their ecology and distribution. National Moth Week aims, with the help of citizen scientists and professionals around the world, to help fill in these data gaps. We hold our Moth Night in October since National Moth Week falls in July and we’ve found the moths find that week less convenient and don’t show up for us!
Moths @ Mother Neff State Park
FREE | October 7 | 7pm – 9pm | Mother Neff State Park | 1680 TX-236 Highway, Moody, TX 76557
Where? This year, Mother Neff State Park is hosting our annual Moth Night! Inside Mother Neff’s headquarters you will find moth displays and glow-in-the-dark face painting, and outside the headquarters you will find a blacklight area with Central Texas Master Naturalists helping you identify what flying critters that live at the park. There will be a scorpion hunt using blacklights (they glow purple!) and astronomers will have telescopes set up for a tour of the night sky.
What to Bring? Nothing, but simple curiosity! However, you can bring a flashlight (please turn off in the telescope area), your phone for photos, and bug spray in case mosquitoes are out with us.
Central Texas Master Naturalists looking through Moth Guides trying to identify moths.
What to expect? You can actively participate by finding moths and submitting photos as a Citizen Scientist. The easiest way is to download the iNaturalist app (www.iNaturalist.org) on your smart phone and create a profile before coming to the event. At the event, you take pictures of moths and upload them to the ‘National Moth Week’ project on iNaturalist. There will be plenty of Central Texas Master Naturalists on hand to help you with it all. We will show you how easy it is to become a Citizen Scientist to help the ‘real’ scientists around the world be at all the places they can’t.
Directions:
From HWY 35, take exit 315 to HWY 107 to Moody. Stay on 107 for six miles turn left on HWY 236. Park entrance is about 1500 feet ahead on the right.
From Waco, take Highway 84 to McGregor, then turn on to 317. Turn right on to 2671, cross Highway 107. The park entrance will be on your right 1500 feet ahead.
The Park HQ is located at:
Latitude (degrees, minutes, seconds) 31°20’3.36″N
Longitude (degrees, minutes, seconds) 97°28’4.34″W
1680 TX-236 Highway
Moody, TX 76557-3317