Counting moths

Counting moths is not as easy as it may seem. Jamm Hostetler, and collaborators at the University of Florida’s Natural History Museum, created a system to count moths more indefatigably than most people would be able to do it.

It’s called AutoMoth. The heart and eyes of it are an Android app called BioLens. Biolens is, in official language, “A flexible, open-source Android app for interval imaging and wildlife monitoring.” Biologists, professional or amateur, use it to count all sorts of critters that fly, walk, crawl, or in whatever way move themselves from here (wherever that is) to there (wherever that is).

Two Generations (and Counting) of Counting

Jamm Hostetler is following in, and whooshing in parallel to, the footsteps or wingbeats of his father, entomologist Mark Hostetler. In 1997 Mark Hostetler was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for entomology, for his scholarly book, That Gunk on Your Car, which identifies the insect splats that appear on automobile windows.