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Have net will travel! Kyle Johnson spent several months camping in Alaska in search of rare or unknown butterflies and moths. Photos courtesy of Kyle Johnson and David MacLean
It’s winter and David MacLean and Kyle Johnson are practicing net neutrality. Their butterfly nets are hanging on a wall, not to come off until it warms up and the moths and butterflies get their wings.
By 2019, David had counted and collected 521 species of moths in Cook County. But as of January 2, 2021, MacLean was up to 558, and the count will no doubt go higher.
David is a retired college teacher. As an entomologist when he wasn’t teaching– he spent much of his free time collecting and studying moths and butterflies, even some bugs.
He’s not alone in his winged pursuit; one of David’s colleagues is Kyle Johnson, an intriguing young man from Wisconsin.
“One fly-infested day in early July, I met Kyle on the Junco Creek Road off of the Pine Mountain Road,” David said. “I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and the deer flies were awful. Kyle’s arms were bare, and when I mentioned that the flies were pretty bad, Kyle replied, “I hadn’t noticed.”
A Macoun’s Arctic butterfly blends in well with its surroundings.
When asked what motivated Kyle to study lepidopterology, Kyle responded, “I’ve always been interested in nature and the outdoors, and spent the majority of my childhood in wild spaces. At the age of three, trees and dinosaurs were the hot topics, but at age five, I was bitten by the entomology “bug.” The seemingly endless variety, as well as the interesting places different species call home, have kept me hooked for life.”
David and Kyle met in 2009. Said Kyle, “I had just joined the Minnesota Biological Survey, and that year we were stationed in Grand Marais. A friend and colleague of mine (who also worked for the Survey) knew Dave, and so we went up to see him, and things went from there.”
Dave even believes Kyle made the local newspaper, sort of.
“Once, in the Cook County News-Herald police reports, someone reported ‘Suspicious blue lights in bogs off the upper Gunflint Trail. It may be part of an experiment.’ When I read that, I laughed and said, hey, that’s Kyle operating two black light traps up on the Gunflint.”
This Boloria eunomia was discovered in the Boggy River Peat lands in Manitoba, Canada
Kyle’s efforts that night paid off as he captured several specimens of the noctuid moth, Lasionycta tiagata, a new Minnesota State record. “Fortunately, Kyle presented me with a spread specimen for my collection,” added Dave.
Kyle was born in Upper Michigan. “Some of the most influential parts of my childhood were spent there, even though I lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin, from late kindergarten through high school.” No doubt that is the root of my love for the north woods.
When asked what made his work meaningful, Kyle replied, “Insects are the dominant animal life in terrestrial ecosystems, both in terms of a number of species and overall biomass. Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies, the latter being a group of moths) are the dominant herbivores. So learning about them can tell us a lot about the state of our environment.
“My specialty is the fauna of the boreal zone, especially that of bogs and fens. Studying these species is a unique window through which we can view changes in our climate. We already see some species disappear from the southern edges of their range, as one might expect.”
Kyle spends weeks and months collecting and photographing moths using sugar baits and battery-powered black lights often operated at the edge of remote wetlands. Working under such conditions requires camping out and staying up all night. Because some moths only fly during mid-to-late fall and early spring; Kyle often camps and works with snow on the ground.
How many butterflies or moths are there?
David answered, “Based on accepted scientific names, in 2011, a team of 44 Lepidopterists documented the number of moths and butterflies worldwide. The number is estimated to be 138,885, classified into 42 superfamilies and 129 families. Of those, only 18,539 were butterflies comprising seven families compared with 130 families of extant moths. Thus the number of moth species outnumbers butterflies 10 to 1. However, as new species and even a few unknown families continue to be discovered, the actual number is unknown. The number of Lepidoptera species from North America is approximately 12,000.”
Moths are found everywhere, but it turns out the most significant number of species of moths occur in the Old World and New World tropics. In those places they rival butterflies in size, diversity, and spectacular appearance, such as the diurnal sunset moth.
“Unfortunately, due to deforestation, many species face extinction, including unknown numbers of un-described species,” David said.
A moths’ size ranges from a wingspan of 2.0 mm to 30 cm (12 inches) for the Atlas moth with a surface area of 400 square cm (62 square inches).
The majority of moths are nocturnal, but a large number are out and about during the day.
Like butterflies, moths go through four very different life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Most moths feed on living plants and play an important ecosystem role in maintaining plant growth. Many others have a diverse diet, including dead leaves, fungi, dead insects and play an important role in breaking down dead material and recycling nutrients. However, at least one species in Hawaii is carnivorous and preys on fruit flies and other small insects. Many adult moths feed on nectar or sap, while some, such as Giant Silk moths, do not feed.
“Moths,” said Dave, “are masters of disguise.”
“To avoid birds’ detection, many moth larvae and adults rely on their shapes and appearance to be less visible to predators. Others resemble something other than food, such as bird droppings, dead leaves, twigs, moss, lichen and flowers. Others have spines, stinging hairs, or noxious chemicals to deter predators. Moths that lack such defenses often mimic ones that do and gain some measure of protection. Some moth larvae resemble snakes, and some adult moths have large transparent spots on their wings that resemble the eyes of owls. Entire families of day-flying moths, the Seaside, are remarkable mimics of bees and wasps. Perhaps the most incredible example of mimicry is the moth Macrocilix maia found throughout India, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. This moth has images of a red-eyed fly feeding on bird poop on its wings!”
The Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, skippers, and moths) is the second-largest order of insects, exceeded in a number of species only by the order Coleoptera (beetles).
Although frail looking, butterflies and especially moths have adapted to almost every terrestrial habitat, from deserts to tropical rain forests. No moths inhabit the oceans, but some have adapted to aquatic habitats where larvae feed on aquatic plants.
Some moths have adapted to Greenland and the High Arctic. David said the larvae of a moth found in Greenland, whose life cycle may take up to 15 years, can survive temperatures of -70º F. Moths have been found at over 17,000 feet on Mount Everest. Moths in five different families have been recorded at over 16,000 feet in Tibet.
“At the other extreme, several species inhabit Death Valley, including a Sphinx moth that flies in early spring.”
However, David noted, “Insect populations are declining worldwide especially during late spring and early summer when they are tormented by black flies, mosquitoes and horse flies. I also find biting flies annoying, but their presence in the north woods means that we live in an ecosystem that is still mostly intact. If you live in the north woods, you have to put up with biting insects.”
When David was asked why work in his field is important, he replied, “It is essential to learn about butterflies, skippers and moths for the following reasons:
“Butterflies and moths are intrinsically valuable and are worthy of conservation in their own right.”
“Butterflies and moths are part of life on earth and an important component of its rich biodiversity.”
“They have been around for at least 50 million years and probably first evolved some 150 million years ago.”
“Butterflies and moths are a highly diverse group comprising over 250,000 species and make up around one-quarter of all named species. Butterflies are flagship species for conservation in general, and in particular for invertebrates. Butterflies and moths are indicators of a healthy environment and healthy ecosystems. They indicate a wide range of other invertebrates, which comprise over two-thirds of all species. Areas rich in butterflies and moths are rich in other invertebrates. These collectively provide a wide range of environmental benefits, including pollination and natural pest control.”
“Moths and butterflies are an essential element of the food chain. They are prey for birds, bats, and other insectivores. For example, in Britain and Ireland, Blue Tits eat an estimated 50 billion moth caterpillars each year. Butterflies and moths support a range of other predators and parasites, many of which are specific to individual species or groups of species. Ecologists have widely used butterflies as model organisms to study the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change.”
When asked what was the coolest moth Kyle had discovered and whether he had found anything out-of-the-ordinary in Cook County, Kyle answered, “Well, there are a lot of “coolest” finds, it’s hard to choose. Finding species that haven’t been seen in Minnesota before (and in some cases nowhere near Minnesota) is always exciting, but that happens A LOT. Some of my exciting finds include potential new species to science (right here in Minnesota); I’m working on a few right now.”
“Cook County has been a fascinating and majestic place to explore, with a number of unusual species. One of my favorites was the Taiga Alpine (Erebia mancinus). This butterfly inhabits shady spruce bog forests and swamps, habitats which few people venture into, and is the rarest of our “bog butterflies.” Most of Minnesota’s butterflies had been discovered by the early 1900s, but this one was not discovered until 1970, when Ron Huber stumbled upon it in Lake County. Cook County was added in 2010. One of the more interesting new state records was Xestia perquiritata, a widespread moth in boreal Canada. However, in Minnesota, it is still only known from a single spot along the Gunflint Trail, discovered in 2010.”
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