Moths too

Moths were always one of those things I wanted to get into but found a little too daunting. As a birder growing up in the UK they were the next logical step after birding and with high diversity you could get a massive list. But despite trying my imagination was never fired by them. In Africa the diversity is of course far higher still and the range of shapes, sizes and colours is mind-boggling. Some species are truly otherworldly. Last rainy season I finally got in to moths properly and every morning before work would photograph whatever specimens were attracted to outside lights and could be found roosting on the walls after dawn. Then it was a case of spending hours in the evenings trawling through the few available resources I came by trying to figure out what family, genus and hopefully species I was dealing with. With some assistance I eventually made some progress and have a site list of 260+ species with probably that number again unidentified. Not particularly impressive, but then at the same time I had no experience, few resources and am in a country with 2,400+ possibilities!

This year the season seems to be slow getting going with very few moths about thus far. A nice, fresh Wavy Owl was in the office this morning and over the last ten days I've added three new species to the list, well that is assuming I've identified them correctly! By the end of November there should be lots around and I hope to identify a few more and make some photos available.

Banded Bagnest (Anaphe panda), Frontier Mine, DR Congo

Nudaurelia gueinzii, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

Phiala alba, Frontier Mine, DR Congo