Mothing and Fireflies: The Greenbelt at Night

The Bachman Greenbelt by day is beautiful, as birds chirp and bees surround the wildflowers that pepper the area. But after the sun sets, the greenbelt is completely transformed when moths, beetles, fireflies and other insects emerge and take over.

As part of our partnership with the University of North Texas, Lily Olivarez and Luis Ibarra organized a mothing event on June 15th in the greenbelt. The purpose of this event was to showcase the incredible diversity of insects that live in the greenbelt but also go unnoticed during the day.

The following was written by Lily Olivarez and Luis Ibarra, to recap the event:

We want to thank the Friends of Bachman Lake, Sam Kieshnick (Urban Biologist for Texas State Parks), and Dr. Baxter-Slye for helping us put on an amazing blacklight mothing event on Monday. Nine mothing setups were established on the meadow side of the greenbelt. These setups consisted of white sheets illuminated by blacklights to attract nocturnal insects. The purpose of this event was to showcase biodiversity and bring the community together.  

We were pleasantly surprised at the turnout. Over 25 people attended the event, 15 of which uploaded observations to iNaturalist. So far, around 240 unique taxa have been uploaded from the event, 60 of which are moth species. Several observed taxa that have few observations in the Dallas area are Anotia robertsonii, Panagaeus fasciatus, and Calleida decora. Each of these species have less than 500 observations worldwide, bringing insight into how this greenspace harbors uncommon insects.  

Insects are the most diverse class of animals, making up around half of the world’s described extant species at ~1 million species (Li & Wiens, 2022). They play a variety of roles in the ecosystem such as nutrient cyclers, prey for insectivores, predators of plants and other animals, and pollinators. We also saw a ton of Caddisflies, which are bioindicators that are sensitive to pollution and disturbance. Their presence suggests Bachman Lake is a quality aquatic habitat.  

Thank you Lily and Luis, for putting on such a fun and educational event!