Twenty-five moth species at a late-June blacklight
July 17, 2026
Over 25 moth species appeared at a late-June blacklight in the gorge — , , , and among them. The larvae of most of these species are specialists, feeding on native trees — sugar maples, oaks, sycamores — and that diversity of host plants reflects a canopy still intact and diverse.This glacial gorge sits as a forest refugium in a farmed landscape, and the moths are a measure of what it still holds. The presence of 25 species on a single night signals that the forest structure here — the variety of mature trees, the undisturbed understory — remains intact enough to support a full community of native lepidopterans.
