Rearing different species, curating the moths into a nice collection, and all the knowledge gained is fun, but the real soul of this hobby is field collecting. Taking your gear, meeting with good friends, and getting out into the wild places is just plain exciting.

The truly romantic days of traveling off with a net and a pith helmet into uncharted lands is are mostly gone... so are your chances of coming home with cholera, dyssintery, and malaria. Luckily for us, we don't need to set sail for Papua or Borneo to collect some very nice bugs. (although it holds some certain attraction to think we could...) I've been fortunate in that I've collected in a few very special places, among them Southeastern Arizona and the mountains of Southern New Mexico. Almost anywhere in the United States there are large Saturniids to be found, and also Sphingiids. It's not always as easy as walking down the street to the nearest gas station and picking up great finds from the walls at night... but ask Dave and Hunter Combs, and Bill Mooney, and you might think it is! Click on the thumbnails below to share some of the experiences We've had in our travels.