Citizen Project Introduction

I will be photographing butterflies, moths and caterpillars (as you have seen in earlier posts) in order to post on the website ButterfliesandMoths.org.  This is a governmental citizen project (formerly operated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)) to assist in sighting of the Order of Lepidoptera which includes Butterflies and Moths.  “The BAMONA project aims to serve as a one-stop database of butterfly and moth data that scientists can use to form or to address research questions”.  More information is available at their website: https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org.

Since my participation of this citizen project began in mid-summer we are further along in the life cycle which normally contains: Egg, Larva, Pupa and Adult stages.  Most everyone is familiar with the Adult stage which is the winged butterfly or moth.  But most people know of the caterpillar stage of fame and fable.

I was interested in this citizen project because of its current lack of participation in my home state of Iowa and felt I could make a contribution albeit minimal to the database map. I have submitted three (3) cases thus far and hope to add additional species over the coming weeks.