PREFACE
MOTH SPECIES THAT HAVE BEEN FOUND IN UTAH
This listing represents the culmination of a personal twelve year survey effort to
increase the number of known and identified moths that have been found in the state of Utah.
It is a summary of my own findings from intensive moth trapping expeditions over those
years, together with the contributed findings of other lepidopterists who have collected in the
state. This has added much to the list size and utility of this survey. For the most part, my own
emphasis has been on the macro moths.
The list total here was usefully expanded by including species of moths culled from
books, or special listings on moth groups, or regional studies on moths which were published
with distribution maps or species range descriptions, which specify Utah, or a portion of the
state, as part of the locality for the species. This study has included reference to pertinent MONA
Fascicles. I have made use of such source material to the extent that I have been aware of its
availability.
I have logged the source from where each Utah species was found listed, with an
appropriate symbol, next to the moth's name and catalogue number, in my copy of the 1983
MONA Checklist, edited by R. W. Hodges. Most moths so logged for having Utah as a locality, are
tagged with more than one source symbol, often with several. It has not been practical, for the
purpose of this listing to indicate all of these sources for each given species. I have selected one
source to print with each species on this tabulation, the priority for which was usually the list
with earliest date of publication on which I found it; or being the sole contributor for that
species; or having reason to consider the source selected to be of special interest as to the
location where the specimen was collected.
The names of tagged species were then typed into the computer in the order found in the
Catalogue with family, MONA catalogue number and a source symbol included with each name.
I counted the total number of species listed here as 1398.
March 2003
Joel M. Johnson
59 East 400 North
Payson, Utah 84651
PH. (801) 465-3526
E-mail: jmjbugs@fiber.net
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks are owed to my fellow members of the Utah Lepidopterist's Society for their
encouragement, and for help in many ways that they have given over the years as I have worked
on this Moth Survey project: for friendly interest, for company on collecting trips and to west
Slope Conferences, for saving me moth specimens they had found on trips after butterflies, for
loaning me their specimens of newly found moth species to photograph, etc.
The page "Key to Source Symbols" mentions several who made significant contribution to
this Utah Moth List, whose special knowledge of a moth group has been of great value.
A number of friends from out of state had sent copies of their lists of species collected in
Utah, adding many new moths to our known residents. Among these were: Ron Leuschner, Kelly
Richers, Ron Robertson and Richard Brown from California; also Donald Bowman, Chuck Harp,
and Paul Opler from Colorado. Ronald F. Rockwell, working for Carnegie Museum, had spent the
entire collecting seasons of 1997 and 1998, running trap lines for moths and other insects in our
Wasatch Mountains with great findings, which he has published, and shared.
A special debt of gratitude is owed to Ronald H. Leuschner of Manhattan Beach, CA for his
able and willing help in providing expert identification on the many moths we send him, which
makes our progress with moth study in our area even possible. Others who have helped very
much with the study and identification of the moths of this region are: J.D. Lafontaine,
D.C.Ferguson, F.H.Rindge, R.W.Poole. C.E.Harp, D.F.Hardwick, and E.L. Quinter.
I express my sincere appreciation to COL Clyde F. Gillette, the able President of the U.L.S.,
whose encouragment and his publication of the results of this survey in UTAHENSIS as the list
has grown with time and input, has been an incentive to push the work forward and bring this
listing to its present conclusion.
There remain hundreds of moth species yet to be found and added to the Utah list. Also,
much more can be learned relating to those we already know of, as to their county distribution,
their larval food plants and their habits.
Plenty of discovery challenges remain for those with the interest, and the time and
ingenuity to pursue them. Webmaster’s Note: A SPECIAL thanks is also due to Vernon E. Evans
who spent countless hours converting this checklist from typewritten form to html.
KEY TO SOURCE SYMBOLS
For the indication of one prior list, or one primary reporter of a collection made, for each
species reported as being found within Utah, and named in this Survey Report.
SYMBOL
SOURCE
K-P
The George F. Knowlton - W. Levi Phillips 1980 List of UTAH Moths in USU Museum.
Most ID's by J.D. Lafontaine.
CFG
UTAHENSIS 1990 "Checklist of Utah Lepidoptera" Clyde F. Gillette, Editor. Much of
moth list has prior sources.
RHL
UTAHENSIS, 1996 Update Supplement to 1990 list. RHL is used as symbol as he
contributed most of its new moths.
RFR
Ron Rockwell's detailed report on two year's collecting in Wasatch Mts for
Carnegie Museum. Contains much new.
PAO
Paul Opler's 2002 report,"Lepidoptera of Canyonlands & Capitol Reef N.P.s".
Some good new moth species.
KMR
Kelly Richers sent a several page list of moths he had collected while at 1996
Pacific Slope Mtg in Ephraim Cyn.
UMG
Approx. 400 major Utah moths illustrated on 20 color plates for projected Guide
to Utah Moths. ID's by RHL.
JMJ
J.M. Johnson collects Utah moths to be identified & photographed as part of
ongoing survey of Utah moths.
JLR
John L. Richards M.D., specialist on Sphinx Moths.
RCM
Robert C. Mower, specialist on Arctiidae.
WHW
Dr. Wayne Whaley, specializing on Catocala.
CEH
Chuck Harp, Littleton, CO a specialist on the Flower Moths, Heliothinae. Has
Distr. Maps, L.F.'s for most.
RLJ
Robert Johnson, Holden,UT has trapped moths, some rare, while employed at
Dugway, P.G., Tooele Co., Utah
DCF
Dr. Douglas C. Ferguson, USNM, author of fascicle on the little green Geometrinae
moths. 1985, F18.1
F25.1
1991 Fascicle 25.1, Plusiinae Noct., Lafontaine & Poole
F26.1
1995 Fascicle 26.1, Cuculliinae, etc., Dr. R. W. Poole
F27.2
1987 Fascicle 27.2, Genus: EUXOA, J. Donald Lafontaine
F27.3
1993 Fascicle 27.3, Noctuini, J.D. Lafontaine, Canada.