A presentation of resources to learn about moths, especially in Indian region

1. Resources for
Moth Studies
Haneesh K M

2. National Moth Week 2021 - India

3. Contents
• Introduction
• History
• Works in the British era
• Works in modern India
• Internet age
• Citizen Science age

4. Moths
• Order: Lepidoptera
• Diverse
• 1,60,000 species across the globe
• 10,000 + species in India
• Important pollinator
• Major element in the food chain
• Economically important

5. Study of Moths
Entomology Lepidopterology Moths

6. History
• Interest in science, nature and the surroundings
• Post-Renaissance, the rise of the "lepidopterist"
• Linnaeus wrote the tenth edition of the Systema
Naturae in 1758
• 1758–1900 was the era of the gentleman scientist.
• Descriptions of many species

7. Explorers
Géographe and Naturaliste
Collectors
Museums

8. Specimens and
Illustrations
• Pinned specimen collections
• it was difficult to catalogue and
communicate names and descriptions
widely.
• Books on butterflies with plates that
were either hand-painted,
lithographed and printed have been a
major tool in lepidopterology

9. Books, Societies
and Journals
• After 18
• Many notable lepidopterists
• Works on taxonomy

10. Moth studies
in India
• Many moths in the region are
distributed throughout
• Demands thorough study to
distinguish them

11. • Moore, F. 1880. The
Lepidoptera of Ceylon,
Vol 1.
• Moore, F. 1882-83. The
Lepidoptera of Ceylon,
Vol 2.
• Moore, F. 1884-7. The
Lepidoptera of Ceylon,
Vol 3.
Frederic Moore FZS
(13 May 1830 – 10 May 1907)

12. Moore's works • 10 volume work on the butterflies of the Indian region that
was begun in 1890 and completed in 1913
"Moore entered the doors of entomology by way of his artistic abilities."

13. Hampson's works
• Hampson, G. F. [1893]. The
Fauna of British India
including Ceylon and Burma.
Moths, Vol. 1. Taylor &
Francis, London. Pp. xxiii +
527. Saturniidae to Hypsidae
527 p - 333 fig

14. Cotes & Swinhoe
• Cotes, E.C. & C. Swinhoe. 1887-
89. Catalogue of the moths of
India. Sphinges and bombyces 2:
42.

15. Swinhoe's
works
• Swinhoe, M.A., Colonel Charles F.L.S. 1894. A list of
the Lepidoptera of the Khasia Hills. Pt.
II. Transactions of the Entomological Society of
London 1894: 145-223 explanation of plate II plate II.
• Swinhoe, C. 1889. On new Indian Lepidoptera,
chiefly Heterocera. Proceedings of the Zoological
Society of London, 1889 (4), 369–432, pls. 43–
44. Internet archive.
• Swinhoe, C. 1895. A list of the Lepidoptera of the
Khasia Hills. Pt. III. Lepidoptera of the Khasia
Hills. Transactions of the Entomological Society of
London 1895. Pg.1-75 Explanation of plate I. Plate.I.

16. T R Bell
• Bell, T.R.D & F. B. Scott. 1937.
The Fauna of British India
including Ceylon and Burma.
Moths, Vol. 5. Taylor & Francis,
London. Sphingidae 537p - 1
folding map - 15 pl.

17. Post-
Independence
Studies
• Biology
• Regional checklists
• New descriptions

18. Challenges in
Taxonomic Studies
• Around 130 families
• Subfamilies
• Tribes
• Subtribes
• Genus
• Species

19. Books
• Allen, M. 1993. Marvelous Moths of Nepal.
• Haruta, T. (Ed.). 1993. Moths of Nepal. Part 2. TINEA. Vol. 13 (Supplement
3). The Japan Heterocerists’ Society, Tokyo
• Kirti, J.S. & N. Singh. 2015. Arctiid Moths of India. Vol. 1, pp 1-205. Nature
Books of India, New Delhi.
• Kirti, J. S., K. Chandra, A. Saxena & N. Singh. 2019. Geometrid Moths of
India. 296 pp. Nature Books of India, New Delhi.
• Melichar, T., J. Haxaire, M. Rezác & H. B. Manjunatha. 2018. A field guide to
Hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) of the state of Karnataka, India.
Published by Ekoloicke centrum Orlov, o.p.s, Orlov 79, 26101 Pribram,
Czech Republic.
• Sondhi, S. & K. Kunte. 2018. Butterflies and Moths of Pakke Tiger Reserve.
Second Edition. Titli Trust (Dehradun), National Centre for Biological
Sciences (Bengaluru) & Indian Foundation for Butterflies (Bengaluru). vi +
242 pp.
• Shubhalaxmi, V. 2018. Birdwing Field Guide to Indian Moths, 1st Edition.
Birdwing Publishers, India, 461pp.
• Dey, P. Joshi, K. & V. P. Uniyal. 2018. Common Moths of WII. WIldlife
Institute of India, Dehradun.

20. Books

21. Study areas
• Taxonomy
• Behaviour
• Ecology
• Genetics
• DNA barcodes

22. Internet age of moths
• Flickr tags – 2005
• Yahoo groups – 2007
• Facebook groups –2011
• WhatsApp groups - 2016

23. Social Media
• Easy to connect
• Poor archiving

24. MOTHS OF
BORNEO
• https://www.mothsofbor
neo.com/

25. Moths of Taiwan • http://mothtaiwan.blogspot.com/

26. Moths of Japan http://www.jpmoth.org/~dmoth/

27. Moths of
Thailand -
volumes
http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/intro.html

28. Citizen
science
Citizen science is scientific
research conducted, in
whole or in part, by
amateur scientists.

29. MOTHS OF INDIA
https://www.mothsofindia.org/
No. of species pages: 1,730
No. of lifecycle pages: 145
No. of images: 15,517
Since 2015

30. Moths of
India
• Species page
• Distribution map

31. Moths of India

32. India Biodiversity
Portal
• https://indiabiodiversity.
org/

33. IBP
• Data presentations

34. INaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/home
• iNaturalist is a social network of
naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists
built on the concept of mapping
and sharing observations of biodiversity
across the globe
• Established in 2008
• 1.8 million registered users

35. Data visualization

36. NMW 2021 -
India
• Project creation
• Data visualization

38. AI powered
identification
Click to add text

39. Thank you
haneeshkm@gmail.com