📜 EwA Week Highlights: Moth Hair, Ambush & Pepperbush

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights September 2, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the September 2nd EwA highlights. I hope you had a good Labor Day weekend! 📸 Looking through our community’s iNaturalist observations each week, I’m often impressed by the quality of photography I see, but sometimes there’s a photo that really sticks out. This nice bit of macro photography of a moth of the genus Leucania from Simon is one of those. The level of detail—down to individual hairs—in this photo is amazing. It’s cool to see little details you might not notice at other scales such as the moth’s palps (a type of mouthpart) and the manner in which its antennae are tucked back over its eyes almost looking like eyebrows. EwA iNaturalist Record (© Simon Gurvets · Columbia County, NY · Aug. 24, 2025)  The activity around a patch of goldenrod often looks to be in a state of constant motion, with nothing in the same space for long, but that’s not true for the ambush predators that call these flowers home. They can stay in the same place for very long periods of time relative to their nectar-feeding counterparts, although this Pennsylvania ambush bug (Phymata pennsylvanica) photographed by Joe seems to be on the move. I once found one of these bugs in the same spot on the same goldenrod plant three weeks apart! EwA iNaturalist Record (© Joe MacIndewar · Stoneham, MA · Aug. 24, 2025) Most of the usual suspects made up EwA’s most observed species this week, but one plant our naturalists observed many times was the sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia). It was also observed on EwA Pheno Lite, including this one from Claire. Our local sweet pepperbushes seem to have mostly dropped their flowers and begun to go to seed, although this of course can vary from habitat to habitat. EwA Pheno Lite Record (© Claire O’Neill · Wellfleet, MA · Sep. 1, 2025)  📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 1,272 observations of 605 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here. 🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 259,598 observations of 13,072 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here. 📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Summer [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows. EwA Fieldwork (and Resources) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅  to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location. 📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here ❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.  That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one! -Mike