Sunday night was blacklighting night. R and I invited some friends to come out to the local mountains for a fun filled night of buglighting. Of course, out of all nights, Sunday was a night of rain. If you read Goodbears blog you know that it started out as a wet night. R and I are field ecologist so we are used to roughing it. Rain, heat, snow, etc. don’t really bother us much…at leats not when its either research or just being out in the field for fun. Unfortunately the others are not so outdoorsey as us. Goodbear was trying to be a good sport. And as much as she said she was whiney. She wasn’t. Not for the conditions we encountered. I was proud of her.

The rain finally stopped and R set up the blacklights, but not the white sheet. It was still wet and a white sheet +water+insects = nasty buggy sticky mess. The insects would still come to the giant mercury vapor lamps. We were good to go. Goodbear a.k.a. G, brought her friend L with her. L is a photography student and was excited to see all the cool bugs and big moths that were coming to the lamps. She got cold from all the rain and decided to wrap herself in Goodbears ‘dirty mexican blanket’ for warmth. Having a heavy, and apparently dirty blanket wrapped around her body didn’t stop her from getting some good insect shots.

L and her dirty mexican blanket

L looked so cute wrapped up. Thanks for being such a great sport L!

There were plenty of the larger moths and beetles coming around. Goodbear got some good shots of this beautiful beetle, the glorious beetle (Plusiotis gloriosa) when it landed.

You can still see a piece of its wing hanging out of its back. Like the top of a convertible car it’s wings will slowly fold back under its hard protective forewing called elytra. You can see both the transparent hindwing and the hard forewing in this great action shot…

Photo by: Goodbear (Digital Muzzle)

As I mentioned earlier. There were plenty of moths. This small moth was obsessed with L. Everytime we saw her, she was carrying this little moth around. It just kept flying back to her. She can’t complain about having such good moth karma. In the end they parted ways…I hope L is doing okay.

Estigeme albida moth (Photo by Goodbear:Digital Muzzle)

The night would not have been complete without the help and company of our adorable field assistants…

Miss Pickles (yes…this is thee Pickles)

Pickles (Photo by:Goodbear:Digital Muzzle)

And my dog, Hoju

Hoju (Photo by:Goodbear:Digital Muzzle)

It was a great night of fun,bugs,dogs, and friends.