In Hidalgo County, there are 29,827 moth observations, total, representing 934 species from 907 observers.  Whereas, the Greater Austin area has 129,267 moth observations, representing 1553 species from 7088 observers. This basic information tells us moths are MEGA undercounted for deep South Texas!

We hope to change this over Labor Day weekend, with 10 observation stations over three nights in various, pollinator-friendly habitats at the National Butterfly Center and Pixie Preserve in the Lower Rio Grande Valley Wildlife Conservation Corridor. We encourage you to get to know the moths of the Center via this iNaturalist project and create your own account (if you don't already have one) in order to contribute during the event, or if you visit before it. You may also choose to check-in periodically to see what gets added ahead of September.

It is not unreasonable to expect another 1,000 species may be found here, so won't you join us? Without a doubt, new records will be made and new species documented during MEGA MOTH 2023.  The only question is what will you find?!