If you’ve ever sat out at night under a light, you know they attract bugs. Lots of bugs, sometimes tons of bugs.
Have you ever looked closely at them?
My backdoor light attracts loads during the spring and summer. This particular May night was the largest variety I think I’d ever seen.
Besides the ever-present moths, there were gnats, flies, and a bunch of others that I haven’t identified.
It just makes me wonder – how many of them have been named? Scientifically identified?
There are around 1 million actually named, with estimates of up to 30 million species unidentified.
How many in these pictures have never been identified? Or seen before?
I don’t know, it just seems that, if you think about it, we really aren’t the dominant animals – we are totally outnumbered and dependent on what insects do. They are out there and you don’t even know where they are or what they are doing, until they come into the light!
Funny that such small creatures can make one feel even smaller!
Images of Lake County 
I love that thrill of a change in perspective (and I don’t just mean visual perspective). Stopping and looking closely and contemplating something often has that affect on me, too. It’s like a moment of clarity – a realization that we see and know only a tiny fraction of what exists. I love that first moth!
Thanks! I get the same feeling when I think about how huge the universe is – we are so small!