Ohio Biological Survey

06/14/2026

Before you reach for anything, look at what you're actually looking at. Seven of the most common caterpillars in American gardens and yards — and the butterfly or moth each one becomes. 🌿

Seven transformations to recognize:

Black Swallowtail — the green caterpillar with bold black bands and yellow-orange spots on your dill, parsley, or fennel. Leave it. The adult is one of the most striking butterflies in the country.

Mourning Cloak — black with red spots and branched spines, often found on willow, elm, and cottonwood. One of the longest-lived butterflies in North America — adults overwinter and emerge in late winter.

Red Admiral — spiny dark caterpillar on stinging nettles or false nettle. The adult's orange-red wing bands are unmistakable.

American Lady — bristly dark caterpillar often found on pearly everlasting and pussytoes. The adult has distinctive eyespots on the hindwing underside.

Milbert's Tortoiseshell — black and spiny with yellow side spots, found on stinging nettles. Northern species, vivid orange and dark wings.

Cloudless Sulphur — smooth bright green, nearly invisible on its host. Becomes one of the most vivid large yellow butterflies in the US — common from the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast.

Tomato hornworm — the large green caterpillar with diagonal white stripes and a curved rear horn. It becomes the Five-spotted Hawkmoth — a substantial moth with pink and grey patterning and a wingspan approaching five inches. 🌱

Every caterpillar is a future pollinator. Observe before you react.

06/13/2026

OBS released “A Naturalist’s Guide to the Mussels of Ohio” at our late-winter Ohio Natural History Conference:

Authored by Michael Hoggarth (one of our state's top experts on mussels) this guide provides an in-depth look at one of Ohio's common but relatively obscure native fauna. Spoiler Alert: their life histories sometime read like something out of a science fiction story.
The first printing of the book quickly sold out q but you can get it at a special low price on Amazon . . .
https://tinyurl.com/mr2vy5xy

06/11/2026

We're not suggesting that you routinely turn on your porch light and distract moths and other flying nocturnal creatures from going about their business. But if your porch light occasionally attracts one of these beauties, this post is a nice reference identifying some of Ohio's more showy moths. It's worth noting that many small moth species are equally spectacular.

Most people think moths are small, brown, and forgettable. The ten species on this chart are none of those things.

The cecropia moth has a six-inch wingspan. She's the largest moth in North America — bigger than many birds. She flies at night, which is why most people go their whole lives without seeing one.

The polyphemus has eyespots the size of dimes on her hindwings. She's named after the cyclops from the Odyssey. Five inches across, and she's probably been to your porch light without you noticing.

🌿 The connections most people miss:

The sphinx moth hovering at your flowers at dusk — she's the adult form of the tomato hornworm that ate your garden. Same animal, two completely different lives.

The isabella tiger moth is the woolly bear caterpillar that crosses your sidewalk every fall. The "winter prediction" caterpillar grew up and flew to your window.

And the peppered moth — speckled black and white — changed color during the Industrial Revolution. Soot darkened the trees, and the dark moths survived. The textbook example of natural selection is sitting on your porch.

For every butterfly you see, there are roughly fourteen moths you don't 🐾

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

This is just one of numerous wetland restoration projects underway near Lake Erie.

One of Ottawa County’s sweetest birding spots – Barnside Creamery – has undergone a wetlands restoration project. Now, it’s even more fun to watch birds while slurping milkshakes. Read more at the link in the comments.

05/09/2026

A message from our good friend Matt Shumar (Program Coordinator for the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative:
. . 17 years ago, I came to Ohio to help finish up the second breeding bird atlas in the state. We're now pulling together the details for the third statewide atlas (concurrent breeding and winter effort), and we need a Project Coordinator!

This is a full-time position that will start this summer, lasting at least through the five years of field work, and likely through analysis and publication phases beyond that. Ideally this is someone fresh out of grad school, experienced with eastern birds. Please help me spread the word:

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03/01/2026

Leading up to this year’s Ohio Natural History Conference, we had an excellent field trip through Mohican State Forest and Clear Fork Gorge State Nature Preserve.

Thanks you to our field trip hosts Will McCormick, Greg Guess, Bob Mulligan with ODNR Div. of Forestry and Andrew Gibson with ODNR Div. of Natural Areas and Preserves

We learned about forest management, legacy of land use, the history of fire, and use of fire towers at Mohican State Forest. Those brave enough got to climb the stairs of the 80 ft. fire tower built in 1934 and onto the observation deck with fantastic panoramic views of the forest. We also walked through the old growth white pine-hemlock forest of Clear Fork Gorge State Nature Preserve. The north bluff of the gorge is full of towering evergreen trees that made for a beautiful, enchanted hike!