Friday 8 August 2014

Moth millennium


This is my thousandth post since starting the blog on 11 June 2008 with a couple of paragraphs (and no picture) headed 'Moths of the world, rejoice!'  Whether they are doing cannot yet be certain, but they are still coming in rich and interesting numbers to the wonderful Robinson light trap which Penny gave me for my birthday three years earlier.

Those offline years are covered by a scrapbook of spidery entries and some rather unfocussed photographs which show what a revolution has taken place in communication over the decade. I know this from my job, of course, as everyone else does from Facebook, Twitter et al and it is one of the greatest leaps forward in the history of humanity. We may not be able to cope individually with the torrents of information now available to all, but it is there to use for man and womankind generally.

This has encouraged many more novices to take up an interest in moths and other once recondite branches of natural history and as a result we are developing a more accurate and data-backed understanding of what is going on, in terms of habitats, threats and - previously struggling for a hearing in public debate - the flourishing good health of many species. Long may these extraordinary development continue. In another 1000 posts time, assuming I am still going, perhaps we will know more about how moths themselves communicate and even be able to get through to them and vice versa. In honour of the austerity of my very first post, I confine my illustration to what happens when you click Google Images for 'talking moth' and then muck around a little with Photoshop.

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