The art of Mothing

Whoosh!

A moth flies right beside my ear. I am standing at the forest edge, waiting for more moths to fly to metal-halide lamp which is in the camping mosquito tent. I take out my camera, and using a bright flash, takes photograph continuously. After 3 hours, my wrist begins to ache, my eyes are tired because of the bright light, but I am happy enough with 300+moth photos.

                      Mothing in school, I am in the right corner of the photo

What am I doing? It’s ‘mothing’, a method which uses a bright light in order to gather nocturnal insects. Despite the time which I started this method is very recent, I always wanted to have this type of experience since I first got interest in moths. Last year, when one KMLA alumnus taught me various moth taxon and introduced how to collect moths, I was eager to figure out what species of moths are living in our school area.

I began with taking photos of moths which came inside of the dorm building during the night. At first, everything was new. Although I took various moths, I didn’t know how to identify them and what to do with the identified ones. At first, if I have a photo of a white moth with black, circular markings I would go on internet and type ‘moth white black dot’ and search on the images until I find the same image of the moth which I have. That method was a time-consuming and inefficient job, but it helped me to get a glimpse of the moths. During winter vacation I visited local library and borrowed books such as ‘Colored guidebook to moth of Korea’ and read through the books. I read those books over and over, when I had spare time.  

The good thing about the guidebooks is that it helped me to identify the moth photos which I have, and also made me to recognize various moths by memorization of their body patterns. So, this year when I see some moth, it was possible to assume the moth’s name before searching the books. I was beginning to understand, and becoming familiar with the moths.

When there was ordering supplies for the school summer camp(our school have a camp for elementary/middle school kids), I asked managing teacher whether I could buy supplies for mothing. With the promise of participating as Teaching Assistant for the school summer camp, I ordered the supplies (of course the supplies are school’s).  

I performed some experimental mothing before the school camp started. When the sky turned red to purple to black, the metal-halide lamp began to light up. Several moths came, and I was pretty satisfied with the colorful patterns of the moths. When I picked up my camera, some more came. I tried to photograph the ones which are present on the mothing equipment. I focused on the moths which are in front of me, and turned my eyes around. Already dozen more was flying in, and when I finished photographing them, couple hundred was sitting on the device! It was a endless work, just like rock of Sisyphus, but more exciting version.

                         Mothing with elementary/middle school students

During school camp, I was in charge of showing kids about the nocturnal insect living nearby. I explained about the names of the moth, their behavior and helped them to get a brief interest to the nature and provided a new way to look into nature. It was a thrilling experience, kids had fun and I thought that teaching is also fun, almost equivalent to studying alone. That’s when I felt that I want to become a professor someday, devoting my interest and passion to nature to my own happiness, and also teaching others about what I am good at.

 Though mothing is a unique experience, I have learned and felt a lot during studying moths. When I'm going through hard times, I always think of mothing and it gives me excitement and a bit of happiness. 

                                  Beautiful Agathia carissima moth.