Mat Seidensticker - The Moth Man

Today we are joined by Mat Seidensticker, former NCAA basketball player turner turned moth biologist. He is a founding member of the Northern Rockies Research & Educational Services, Inc., which is dedicated to advancing scientific research, education, and conservation of insects, birds, and other wildlife, and his area of focus is the Montana Moth Project (MMP).

With only two full-time staffers (who double as field techs), the MMP team clocked more than 8,000 road miles this summer, traveling the state sampling moths in a diversity of habitats. From tiny, delicately patterned micromoths (often no larger than a rice grain) to bird-sized behemoths like Hyalophora cecropia, the moths of Montana are as compelling as any of the macro mammals for which the state is famous. Mat has recorded and vouchered myriad species previously unknown from (or not yet observed in) Montana, Rhyacionia neomexicana, Evergestis consimilis, and Copablepharon arinotum.