My research attempts to understand what mechanisms may be producing the caterpillar abundance fluctuations like those seen over the past 20 years. Part of this effort includes identifying as many of the species of forest Lepidoptera of the White Mountains as possible. These forests are home to as many as 1000 or more Lepidoptera species, and many hundreds are attracted to my black light traps. I attempt to identify and count almost all these moth captures and then compile information on each species in a FileMaker™ database to aid in my analyses. This database includes pictures of voucher specimens; taxonomic, life history and host plant information as well as some of my abundance data.

When viewing the database, click on these tabs for information on the species we've identified so far:

Taxonomy: Family, subfamily, tribe, genus and species. Additionally, clicking buttons on the right allow users to view lists of these taxonomic groups (with images).
Life History: Phenology (light and caterpillar seasons), number of generations per year, overwintering strategy and range size. Currently the phenological information is exclusively taken from references, but we will incorporate our own site-specific phenology data shortly.
Host Plants: Family, genus or species names of host plants for each Lep species, compiled from assorted references.
Abundance: Absolute capture abundances for each year, as well as the interannual per capita population growth rates.

Users may also search the databse in FIND mode (click on the magnifying glass icon), using whatever criteria they choose. Please note that this database is a work in progress; a lot of the ecological information is rather difficult to find. Additionally, many of the species still lack images. If you notice errors in species identification or can add to the ecological information, please email me.

To access the FileMaker™ searchable database on the Lepidoptera spieces found in the White Mountain National Forest, click here.

(FileMaker Instant Web Publishing instructions can be found by clicking the Question Mark (?) icon on the upper portion of the database's left navigation panel.)