Documenting Changes in Moth Documenting Changes in Moth Life-Cycles and Abundance Life-Cycles and Abundance

Caused by Urban Warming and Caused by Urban Warming and PollutionPollution

Trung Quach, Yen Duong, Vy TranTrung Quach, Yen Duong, Vy Tran

What is DiscoverLife?

• Ecology research project run by Dr. John Pickering, University of Georgia.

• Provides tools for documenting (photographs) and identifying (interactive guides) insects.

• Uses a network of sites to model the potential impacts of climate change and actual impacts of pollution.

Where and Why?• Atlanta and Athens have the same basic

climate and habitats.– Atlanta has more pollution.– Atlanta is (artificially) warmer at night.

2010 Monthly average daily high and low temperatures for major Georgia cities

City Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Athens 51/33 56/35 65/42 73/49 80/58 87/65 90/69 88/68 82/63 73/51 63/42 54/35

Atlanta 52/34 57/36 65/44 73/50 80/60 86/67 89/71 88/70 82/64 73/53 63/44 55/36

Heat Islands Model Global Warming

• Major cities have artificially hotter night-time temperatures. (Pavement holds heat longer.)

• Changes in biodiversity in these Heat Islands can predict future changes in biodiversity for the whole region due to global warming.

• “Natural” Experiment

What are we comparing?• Total number of species and number of each

species seen

• Representation of major categories, such as Lichen Moths– Lichen moths feed off of lichens ascaterpillars.– Lichens are sensitive to pollution.

Lichen Moth

Overall Moth Data• Preliminary data available to compare Atlanta to Athens.

• Table 1 & 2 shows the quality of the data. Pay attention to the following:– Number of total photos taken (including moth, light

source, phone pictures)– Number of moths that are identified to the species

level– Number of “Phone” pictures (nights of effort)

Quality of DataYear

Monthphoto

sidentified to

speciesPhon

e

2013 01 66 15 19

2013 02 106 6 23

2013 03 179 54 31

2013 04 159 53 24

2013 05 264 114 28

2013 06 203 56 21

2013 07 121 46 15

2013 08 212 81 18

2013 09 207 68 22

2013 10 435 62 38

2013 11 121 3 14

2013 12 79 4 10

2014 01 102 8 18

2014 02 92 29 9TOTALS 2,346 599 290

AtlantaYear

Monthphoto

sidentified to

speciesPhon

e2013 01 1,839 1,564 31

2013 02 891 693 28

2013 03 1,559 1,161 34

2013 04 3,545 2,563 41

2013 05 5,391 3,705 33

2013 06 4,727 3,419 39

2013 07 4,615 3,103 35

2013 08 5,053 3,920 37

2013 09 4,002 2,888 38

2013 10 1,902 963 31

2013 11 964 272 30

2013 12 479 178 31

2014 01 309 130 35

2014 02 441 251 20TOTALS 35,717 24,810 463

Athens

Species Data

• Atlanta has a lower abundance of moths.- Additionally, the species seen in Atlanta should be among the common moths of Athens.

• Table 2 shows the 30 most common species in both Athens and Atlanta.

Top 30 Species Athens vs. AtlantaAthens most common

mothsNumber of photos (Athens)

Number of photos (Atlanta)

Ranking in Athens

Ranking in Atlanta

Phigalia denticulata 3,738 20 1 18Hypoprepia fucosa 2,729 0 2 999

Hypagyrtis unipunctata 2,262 4 3 83Melanolophia signataria 1,889 9 4 31

Cissusa spadix 1,692 1 5 175Microcrambus elegans 1,549 33 6 7Eupithecia miserulata 1,458 22 7 15

Phigalia strigataria 1,451 0 8 999Dolichomia olinalis 1,302 50 9 4

Sciota uvinella 1,203 0 10 999Ectropis crepuscularia 1,157 0 11 999

Phoberia atomaris 1,036 0 12 999Iridopsis defectaria 1,017 3 13 100Clemensia albata 987 0 14 999

Alsophila pometaria 934 12 15 33Marimatha nigrofimbria 880 17 16 24

Spilosoma congrua 865 0 17 999Lochmaeus bilineata 850 0  18 999

Hypena scabra 842 73 19 1Idia rotundalis 728 0 20 999

Acrolophus popeanella 723 10 21 39Eutrapela clemataria 718 6 22 60

Nadata gibbosa 701 1 23 211Epimecis hortaria 660 15 24 28

Glenoides texanaria 615 0 25 999Baileya ophthalmica 585 0 26 999

Costaconvexa centrostrigaria

58150

279

Nigetia formosalis 564 0 28 999Cisthene packardii 556 0 29 999Paleacrita vernata 532 0 30 999

Top 30 Species Atlanta vs. AthensAtlanta most common

mothsNumber of photos (Atlanta)

Number of photos (Athens)

Ranking in Atlanta

Ranking in Athens

Hypena scabra 73 842 1 19Fissicrambus mutabilis 66 86 2 222Blastobasis glandulella 57 237 3 89

Dolichomia olinalis 50 1,302 4 9Udea rubigalis 36 380 5 48

Clepsis peritana 35 133 6 143Microcrambus elegans 33 1,549 7 6

Galgula partita 31 257 8 81Melanolophia signataria 31 1,889 9 4

Costaconvexa centrostrigaria 30 581 10 27

Acleris semipurpurana 29 103 11 184Glyphidocera juniperella 27 323 12 59

Idia aemula 26 279 13 74Archips argyrospila 22 70 14 258

Eupithecia miserulata 22 1,458 15 7Parapediasia teterrella 21 141 16 134

Diatraea lisetta 20 210 17 99Phigalia denticulata 20 3749 18 1

Pleuroprucha insulsaria 20 261 19 78Atteva aurea 19 343 20 55

Celypha cespitana 19 2 21 997Herpetogramma aeglealis 18 16 22 575

Platynota idaeusalis 18 158 23 118Marimatha nigrofimbria 17 880 24 16

Palthis asopialis 17 300 25 65Argyrotaenia velutinana 16 79 26 233

Tetanolita floridana 16 70 27 259Epimecis hortaria 15 660 28 24Scoparia basalis 15 433 29 40

Tetanolita mynesalis 15 102 30 186

Atlanta most commonAthens ratio (moth

pics/phone)Atlanta ratio (moth pics/

phone)Hypena Scabra 0.5682 0.1682

Fissicrambus mutabilis 0.0580 0.1521Blastobasis glandulella 0.1599 0.1313

Dolichomia olinalis 0.8785 0.1152Udea rubigalis 0.2564 0.0829

Clepsis peritana 0.0897 0.0806Microcrambus elegans 1.0452 0.0760

Galgula partita 0.1734 0.0714Melanolophia signataria 1.2746 0.0714

Costaconvexa centrostrigaria 0.3920 0.0691Acleris semipurpurana 0.0695 0.0668

Glyphidocera juniperella 0.2179 0.0622Idia aemula 0.1883 0.0599

Archips argyrospila 0.0472 0.0507Eupithecia miserulata 0.9838 0.0507Parapediasia teterrella 0.0951 0.0484

Diatraea lisetta 0.1417 0.0461Phigalia denticulata 2.5297 0.0461

Pleuroprucha insulsaria 0.1761 0.0461Atteva aurea 0.2314 0.0438

Celypha cespitana 0.0013 0.0438Herpetogramma aeglealis 0.0108 0.0415

Platynota idaeusalis 0.1066 0.0415Marimatha nigrofimbria 0.5938 0.0392

Palthis asopialis 0.2024 0.0392Argyrotaenia velutinana 0.0533 0.0369

Tetanolita floridana 0.0472 0.0369Epimecis hortaria 0.4453 0.0346Scoparia basalis 0.2922 0.0346

Tetanolita mynesalis 0.0688 0.0346

Athens most common Athens ratio (moth pics/phone) Atlanta ratio (moth pics/phone)Phigalia denticulata 2.5223 0.0461Hypoprepia fucosa 1.8414 0.0000

Hypagyrtis unipunctata 1.5263 0.0092Melanolophia signataria 1.2746 0.0207

Cissusa spadix 1.1417 0.0023Microcrambus elegans 1.0452 0.0760Eupithecia miserulata 0.9838 0.0507

Phigalia strigataria 0.9791 0.0000Dolichomia olinalis 0.8785 0.1152

Sciota uvinella 0.8117 0.0000Ectropis crepuscularia 0.7807 0.0000

Phoberia atomaris 0.6991 0.0000Iridopsis defectaria 0.6862 0.0069Clemensia albata 0.6660 0.0000

Alsophila pometaria 0.6302 0.0276Marimatha nigrofimbria 0.5938 0.0392

Spilosoma congrua 0.5837 0.0000Lochmaeus bilineata 0.5735 0.0000

Hypena scabra 0.5682 0.1682Idia rotundalis 0.4912 0.0000

Acrolophus popeanella 0.4879 0.0230Eutrapela clemataria 0.4845 0.0138

Nadata gibbosa 0.4730 0.0023Epimecis hortaria 0.4453 0.0346

Glenoides texanaria 0.4150 0.0000Baileya ophthalmica 0.3947 0.0000

Costaconvexa centrostrigaria 0.3920 0.1152Nigetia formosalis 0.3806 0.0000Cisthene packardii 0.3752 0.0000Paleacrita vernata 0.3590 0.0000

Clarke County Atlanta

BlueHeron

Sandy Creek

Hypoprepia fucosaminiata

2,72919

26327

00

Clemensia albata 987 101 0

Cisthene packardiiplumbea

556407

113

00

Crambidia uniformis +pallida

865 15 0

Totals lichen moths

5,563 420 0

all moths 96,630 7,005 1,932

5.8% 6.0% 0.0%

Lichen moths

Conclusions• Atlanta has a lower abundance of moths and of species even

with equal effort. (phone pictures)• Comparing Athens to Atlanta, many species match each

other in top 30. However, the ratio of top 1 Moths and photos in Atlanta is even lower than the ratio of top 30 of Athens.

• Atlanta does not have any lichen moths, while 6% of Athens’ moths are lichen ones. Atlanta’s air pollution may reduce the lichen’s population.

• April, May, and June will be incredibly important months for the project!

Acknowledgments• Dr. John Pickering and Ms. Nancy Lowe (UGA)

- Ms. Victoria Staples and Mr. Cameron Prybol

• Dr. Jonathan Lochamy and Dr. Ilse Rickets (GPC)

• Additional Interns not present: Priscilla Adodo, Dienabou Diawara, Tshibambe Tshimbombu*, Ndasi Hepi*, Folashade Maxwell*, Yitbarek Kazentet*, Mwoddah Habib, Imien Adodo*, Hanna Nune*, Fatima Yadudu*, Quan Bui*, Khoa Nguyen*, Kristen Farley*, and Jabrel Hersi*.

• Funding provided by STEM II Minigrant

* Interns from prior year.