MothBox Apparel - Tropical Biodiversity Research Fundraiser

[Sarah Dendy]

Some folks asked how I got such anatomically-accurate insect apparel at Tuesday's CEC meeting, so I had the opportunity to say it is in fact field-collected moth image data from Mt. Totumas, Panama! The clothing is sold as part of a fundraiser for Mothbox, a biodiversity survey setup from Gathering for Open Science Hardware / Digital Naturalism Labs. If you are interested in your own nocturnal insect apparel, the link is here, and they make about $9-$12 per item sold:

https://mothbox.printify.me/products

The Mothbox itself is an open-source, somewhat low-cost and highly portable setup for tropical field biodiversity studies: it consists of a flat surface, a light, and a camera to document what comes to the light and lands on the surface. The team is still investigating ways to make it more cost-effective, durable, and to help it process the images autonomously, like counting or even identifying moths for the researcher. Work is ongoing and everything is currently open-source. You can find out more from the forum pages: MothBox

Sarah Dendy

CEC President 2024-2025