Back when I was an angsty teen, I found great joy in languorous long jokes that ended with punny punchlines (maybe I wasn’t all that angsty). One such joke I still delight in to this day involved moths—you know, the butterfly-like but not butterfly members of the order Lepidoptera that flutter about night and day? So, when I learned that it is currently National Moth Week, and that there are people in the world who go mothing, my whole being churned with purpose to spread the word as far and wide as social distancing allows. And good news, Corvallisites, you can take part in a global citizen science effort to document the extraordinary diversity of moths from the comfort and safety of your own neighborhoods.
National Moth Week was established in 2012 by the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission in New Jersey. Now eight years and running, events to celebrate NMW have spanned all 50 states and a whopping 80 countries on our green earth. Participants take part by submitting moth observations and photos to 
the site iNaturalist.org or on the iNaturalist phone app. Last year, 27,000 observations were posted, leaving one to wonder if a Covid-stricken world can beat the record.
Accept the challenge? Learn about nighttime nature the lazy way by leaving an outdoor light on to attract moths. Or, go above and beyond like a true moth-er by researching how to coat tree trunks with a sticky-sweet mixture of fruit and stale beer. Post your findings to the World Wide Web before July 26, or keep them all to yourself.
Either way, keep it close to heart that moths are stinking neat in ecological terms. Scientists estimate a range of 150,000 to 500,000 species globally. Moth colors and patterns run the gauntlet, from acting as camouflage to scaring potential predators off. Most importantly, moths can serve as indicators of the health of an ecosystem—a greater diversity of moth species in an area means that there’s a greater diversity of plant species, which leads to a greater diversity of other species.
Here are resources you may want to check out to get involved:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/national-moth-week-2020
By Ari Blatt
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