Butterflies are like prom queens. They're beautiful and showy and get all the attention. Moths are like the other girls—get to know them, and you'll see how special they are!
There are about 750 species of butterflies in North America—and about 12,000 moth species. How many species of moths live on the Siskiyou Crest? No one knows, but the Siskiyou Crest Coalition has invited "citizen scientists" to join lepidopterist Dana Ross to try to find out.
That's why I was setting up a tent at 7000-foot Observation Gap at dusk last week.
It was cold and windy. Mt. Shasta rose majestically on the horizon, snowy in twilight. In the opposite direction the sun was setting with scarlet brilliance behind the forest. On two places on Observation Gap double sets of large white sheets, billowing in the wind, gleamed in the beam of strong, battery-powered black lights. 
As dark descended, the four citizen scientists and one learned scientist gathered at the sheets, waiting, glass vials in hand, for the moths.
And the moths came, flying into the sheets. Soon we were all busy scooping moths into vials.
Then we would show the captured moth to Dana, who would say, "Oh, it's a [such-and-such] moth. That's great!" or, sometimes, "Oh, I don't know that one!" All went in a cooler to take back to the lab to be identified and labeled as one of the moth species found on the Siskiyou Crest.
In only a few hours we had 50 or 60 moths in the cooler. Some were thumb-sized. Some were a quarter-inch long, as thin as pencil lead, and so insignificant I thought they wouldn't be worth the catch. But no moth was beneath Dana's consideration. He likes them all, whether tiny or large, dull or beautifully patterned.
By midnight I was yawning and ready to retire. Soon the others followed me to their tents. Dana suggested we could get up before daylight and see what was still flying around, but when predawn came, I decided I was pleased enough with my contribution to scientific knowledge of the Siskiyou Crest that I didn't have to catch more moths. I snuggled deeper into my sleeping bag and let images of moths flit again through my dreams.
All photos by Suzie Savoie.
