BAMONA's blog

Butterfly Conservation's Seventh International Symposium will be held at Southampton on the theme: The ecology and conservation of butterflies and moths.

The Symposium will include the latest science of butterflies and moths and how science can help to reverse the decline of butterflies and moths, and their habitats. The programme also provides opportunities for Butterfly Conservation members and others to present papers or posters on practical conservation work and contributions will be welcomed. The Symposium will end with a forward look of future challenges, including the impact of climate change.

Keynote speakers include Prof. Chris Thomas (York Univ, UK), Prof Christer Wiklund (Stockholm Univ, Sweden), Dr Tom Brereton (Butterfly Conservation, UK), Dr Bob Pyle (Naturalist and writer, USA), Scott Hoffman Black (Xerces Society, IUCN Butterfly Specialist Group, USA) and Dr Thomas Merckx (University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). The proceedings will be published as a special issue of the Journal of Insect Conservation, deadline for paper submission will be Friday 2nd May 2014). .

Mark your calendar: National Moth Week is July 20-28, 2013!

Getting involved is easy: attend a National Moth Night event, start an event, join friends and neighbors to check porch lights from time to time, set up a light and see what is in your own backyard, or read literature about moths, etc. Visit the National Moth Week website for more information, or learn how to register.

If you take part in National Moth Week, you can provide your data to us. Take photographs of the moths you find, and come share your sightings with BAMONA. You will need to register for an account, but registration is quick and easy to set up, and logged in BAMONA users can track all of their observations online. Simply take a photograph of a moth, and submit that information to us via our online submission form. Make sure to select "National Moth Week" under the list of Partner Projects.

We'll add the verified records to the database, maps, and checklists, and your data will become part of BAMONA's growing dataset.

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) receives awards from time to time, and we are always so busy with day-to-day operations that we forget to mention them to our users, contributors, and coordinators. While it does not include all past awards, we will try to keep the new Awards page up to date in the future. To everyone who supports BAMONA, we want to extend our sincere appreciation. BAMONA would not exist without you. These are your awards too.

National Pollinator Week starts today! Pollinating animals such as bees, birds, butterflies, bats, and beetles provide valuable ecosystem services. Learn how you can get involved in National Pollinator Week and the Pollinator Partnership.

Brookside Gardens (Wheaton, Maryland) is seeking volunteers for its Wings of Fancy live Butterfly and Caterpillar Exhibit, May 4th-September 22nd, 2013. Butterfly Exhibit Volunteers assist staff and visitors inside the exhibit as Flight Attendants, welcome visitors outside the exhibit as Ticket Takers, or give guided tours to groups of school children.

Volunteers must be ages 14 and older, or 11-13 with a parent or guardian. A minimum commitment of 10 shifts is required. Shifts are 9:45a.m.-1:15p.m. and 1:00p.m.-5:00p.m. seven days a week during the exhibit.

Apply online to be a Butterfly Exhibit Volunteer at: www.parksvolunteers.org or call the volunteer desk at 301.962.1429 or email mcp-gardenvolunteer@montgomeryparks.org for more information.

The 18th European Congress of Lepidopterology will be held in Blagoevgrad, SW Bulgaria on July 29 - August 4, 2013. For more information, visit http://www.ecl18.eu/.

Are you ready for National Moth Week? Mark your calendar now for July 20-28, 2013. Plan ahead and register your location. Set up a light, go for a walk, take some photographs, and share your moth observation data with Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA)!

The Southern African Butterfly Red List and Atlas book can now be ordered via its pre-publication offer. All 794 butterfly species and subspecies are illustrated to aid identification, there are distribution maps for all of them, as well as their conservation assessments and red listing. This book presents all the work done during the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment project (SABCA). SABCA was a three-way partnership between the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), the Lepidopterists' Society of Africa and the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town (Dept. Zoology).

If you'd like to see more details and place an order (or more) for the book, please visit:
http://adu.org.za/sabca_book.php.

Please note: the pre-publication offer ends 31 March and thereafter you will no longer be able to order the book.

The Xerces Society is now accepting applications for two $3,750 awards for research into Lepidoptera conservation.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The The Joan Mosenthal DeWind Awards are given to students who are engaged in research leading to a university degree related to Lepidoptera conservation and who intend to continue to work in this field. All proposals must be written by the student researcher. Proposed research should have a clear connection to Lepidoptera conservation and must be completed within one year from receiving funds. Applicants may be graduate or undergraduate students; however, please note that all but one awardee, to date, have been pursuing graduate research. Applications from countries outside the United States will be considered but must be written in English and international applicant work cannot involve work in the United States.

For more information, to download a PDF of the submission guidelines, and to read summaries of previous award winning projects, please visit http://www.xerces.org/joan-dewind-award/.

Submission Deadline for 2013 Awards
The submission deadline is Monday, December 31, 2012 at 5:00 PM PDT. Award winners will be announced by March 31, 2013, with the awards given by May 2013.

Some of our BAMONA participants have received an e-mail inviting them to participate in a user survey. Because we have received some inquiries, we want to let you know that it is a valid survey and we do hope you take part in it. If you have trouble when you click the link in the e-mail, you can cut and paste it into your browser. As not all users were sent the survey, we do not want to advertise the link here. Let us know if you have any additional questions! Thank you.