Kristel's Moth Research Internship

Kross-Eyed Kristel The Moth Lady
Originally uploaded by Creation Care Study Program.

They call me moth lady. Through my internship I became very familiar with moths. My internship took me out to the bush at night to collect moths. To capture moths I sat in front of a really bright light and waited for hours for moths to appear. Now the moths that I was particularly interested in were the Sphingidae or hawk moths. My plans were to collect a whole of these moths, sex them, rear them, and send the eggs off to England. The collected eggs would then be used for identification purposes, identification of the phylogeny of Sphingidae rather then the morphology. Collecting the Sphingidae was always fun, but when none had appeared it got incredibly frustrating. My moth hunting partner, Marike and I began seeing trends, on dark rainy nights we would see the moths. And for the moths that Marike and I did catch we identified and sexed each one of them. I realized that during the identification of several moths, I was fascinated ar just how intricately these moths are designed. Sometimes it got a little confusing with all the different traits to identify, but each one of these moths are quite unique and beautiful. I know that this experience has given me a deeper appreciation for the little creepy crawly things at night, especially the Sphingidae moths. It has also showed me patience and taught me that research may be frustrating but sometimes getting no moths at all still shows important results.

Kristel Pendleton - AKA moth lady
Eastern Nazarene College