Identification

The insect order Lepidoptera is comprised of all butterflies and moths. With approximately a quarter of a million described species, the order is one of the four most species-rich on the planet, the others being the Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (flies), and Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies). In North America north of Mexico, there are over 11,800 described species of moths and over 700 butterflies. With the exception of a few spectacular species that are very distinct, identifying them is not easy. Some species cannot be distinguished without examination of their genetic material or internal genitalia. Nevertheless, by using the local identification tools that Discover Life is developing and by following the procedures outlined below to ensure quality control, Mothing's goal is to identify accurately to species at least 90% of the moths in contributors' photographs. Below we describe how.

On-line local identification guides

We are currently building on-line guides to the moths of North America north of Mexico. If available, use the state or county guides listed below rather than the North American one. Guides to other groups, including butterflies and caterpillars, are listed here. To find local guides to your area, go to Study sites and then BELOW the map, select the site nearest to you.

If you have not used our guides before, see help.

If you wish to contribute photographs to these guides or help in another way, please contact us.

• North America (11,820 species)

  Alabama (646 species) Alaska (94 species) -- need additional lists California (3,890 species) Georgia (2,491 species) Clarke County (915 species) Illinois (986 species) Iowa (1,587 species) Kentucky (1,341 species) Maryland (1,013 species) Massachusetts (1,156 species) Nantucket County (732 species) Michigan (1,376 species) Missouri (799 species)

  Montana (650 species) -- need additional lists New Hampshire (666 species) -- need additional lists New Mexico (257 species) -- need additional lists New York (778 species) -- need additional lists North Carolina (2,346 species) Oklahoma (1,756 species) Pennsylvania (1,399 species) Utah (1,271 species) Tennessee (1,806 species) South Carolina (1,820 species)

Work flow to identify moths in albums

We are developing the capacity to identify large numbers of moth photographs rapidly and accurately. This process includes the following 5 steps:

• Step-1: Tagging as 'moth'
  After album owners upload a set of new images (see Upload Images), they should tag each image with information on where and when they took the photographs (see Editing Album). While doing this, they should change the title from 'untitled' to 'moth' and change the _grade from '-9' to '-1'. [estimated time: 5 seconds per image]

  If there are a lot of images in a new set, album owners with 'edit' should

  1. submit the values for the first image in a series,
  2. set the first image as the template (use 'Set id as template'),
  3. use 'Browse' to naviagate to the last image in the series, and
  4. use the left column to apply the template to the 'id range' of images.

  Note: Uploaded images are processed each night. You may have to wait until the following morning to tag them.

• Step-2: Sorting into 'buckets'
  We sort moths to 'buckets' based on shape, color, and pattern. Each bucket contains a group of species. This step is done by
  • Authorized individuals [10 seconds per image]
  • Happy Moths -- a crowd sourcing game being developed in partnership with Syracuse University and the Encyclopedia of Life

• Step-3: Identification to species
  Student "bucket" experts or album owners add species names to the moths in the buckets. These individuals fill in the determined_by field. [20 seconds per image]

• Step-4: Quality control: checking by automated computer programs
  Computer checks for outliers based on known geography and season [< 1 millisecond]

• Step-5: Quality control: Blessing species identifications by human experts
  Experts "bless" the identifications of images for each species, 300 at a time [< 1 second per image].

Life lists

Album owners build a life list of the species that they have photographed. In 'edit' click 'List all' to see an album's life list. This lists the insects, plants, fungi, vertebrates, and other species. After clicking 'Find', one can restrict these lists by location.

Mapping

In 'edit' one can map where the photographs in an album were taken by clicking 'Map'.

Contact information

• To help identify moths, please contact
  Nancy Lowe -- email: nancy@discoverlife.org -- telephone: USA-404-272-4526