Clicking on the Moth Photographers Group (MPG) number on the left will take you to that species page on MPG. Clicking on the scientific name will take you to the species page on this site. Note that for species without an MPG number (e.g. for species complexes and undescribed species), a placeholder number is given and the link will keep you on the current page.
The species pages provide more detail on the species, including a map showing all records of the species in the Mass Moths database. Note however, that not all available information has been added to the species pages yet – this is an ongoing process and existing information is being continually refined. If MPG, Bugguide.net, iNaturalist or BOLD (Barcode of Life Data System) have a page for that species, then links are provided to those pages. If the species is included in the Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America (PFG), then the page number is given. The ‘P3’ number is also given, if available. This is the number used for a provisional checklist of North American Lepidoptera (Pohl, G.R., Patterson, B., & Pelham, J.P. 2016. Annotated taxonomic checklist of the Lepidoptera of North America, North of Mexico. Working paper published online by the authors at ResearchGate.net. 766 pp.). The original P3 number used a decimal after the first two digits, but we have dropped the decimal point, resulting in a 5- or 6-digit number.
For a few species, the precise location or town where the species was found is not known, in which case a blank map is presented. For more information on mapping, see the ‘About’ tab.
Larval substrates (mainly hostplants) are given where known. These have been taken from various literature sources, but in particular from Robinson et al (2010): HOSTS – A Database of the World’s Lepidopteran Hostplants. Natural History Museum, London, and also from the Mass Moths database. Those hostplants confirmed for the State are given an asterisk (*). For plant nomenclature, I have leant heavily on the Native Plant Trust ‘Go Botany’ website. The scientific and English name has been given for each entry, which means that both can be used in a search. However, the English names are far from standardized, so searching on the scientific name is best.
Phenology information have been added. First and last dates for adults have been automatically extracted from the database, although not taking possible multi-generations into account. It is possible that not all larval observations have been filtered out, resulting in some odd first or last dates (please report those if seen). Species with overwintering adults have been corrected for this, but some might have been missed. Phenograms are being added for species with enough data.
Under ‘Comment’, a wide variety of additional information will be given.
The status of each species in Massachusetts is an automated assessment based on the number of grid squares and over how many regions they are distributed. The microlepidoptera are assessed differently due to the generally fewer number of records available. Many of those are probably much more widespread and more common than many of the records suggest.
There are 37 moth species protected under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act (https://www.mass.gov/info-details/list-of-endangered-threatened-and-special-concern-species#butterflies-and-moths). On the corresponding species pages there are links to the species profile on the mass.gov website.
The ‘Distribution by County’ lists the counties the species have been reported from. However, it doesn’t distinguish between questionable and accepted records. For that detail, check the map and/or the downloadable county list.
Photos of species will be added over the coming months.