{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/122071"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/122071","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Spatiotemporal drivers of large moth activity across forest-grassland habitat complexes in central illinois and their implications for the conservation of the declining Eastern Whip-poor-will, a moth specialist","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-03-01 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-03-01 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Witynski, Grant Curtis"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Natural Res & Env Sciences","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ward, Michael P","Benson, Thomas J","Berenbaum, May R"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-12","date_published":"2023-12","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:00Z","subjects":["Landscape Ecology","Nocturnal","Activity","Ecology","Conservation","Conservation Biology","Moth","Nightjar","Whip-poor-will","Entomology","Ornithology"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2023 Grant C. Witynski"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122071","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ward, Michael P","Benson, Thomas J","Berenbaum, May R"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Witynski, Grant Curtis"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2023-12","2023-12-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Natural Res & Env Sciences"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Landscape Ecology","Nocturnal","Activity","Ecology","Conservation","Conservation Biology","Moth","Nightjar","Whip-poor-will","Entomology","Ornithology"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2023 Grant C. Witynski"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122071"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-03-01 without embargo terms","The student, Grant Witynski, accepted the attached license on 2023-12-06 at 16:52.","The student, Grant Witynski, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2023-12-06 at 17:09.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2023-12-08 at 08:44.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #20159 on 2024-03-01 at 13:15:30","Large moths are known to serve key roles in many ecosystems as herbivores, pollinators, and prey to diverse species. Nocturnal plants and animals that depend on moths often have narrow diel and seasonal activity windows due to restrictions such as cooler nighttime temperatures and limited light availability. Because of these limitations, increasingly well-documented declines in moths and species such as the Eastern Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus), a specialist moth predator, have raised concerns about potential mismatches in activity between moths and the taxa that rely on them for food or pollination. Since 2021, I have been working to investigate large moth activity in midwestern landscapes by conducting hundreds of hours of insect trapping using ultraviolet-light bucket traps on whip-poor-will breeding grounds in central Illinois. I distributed trapping efforts throughout the summer across forest and edge habitats and lit traps during one of three 90-minute time blocks (dusk, solar midnight, and dawn). Moths with a body length ≥ 10 mm were sorted out of these samples, counted, and massed to determine patterns and drivers of large moth activity on the landscape. Large moth abundance and biomass increased in forest interiors relative to forest/grassland edges and generally peaked in late June relative to the rest of the season, with those peaks largely driven by forests. Moth abundance and biomass were highest after dusk relative to solar midnight and dawn in forests and did not differ over the course of the night along edges. Moth captures and mean moth weight also differed between field sites and showed complex responses to interactions involving temperature, moon brightness, relative humidity, and wind speed. These insights into the spatiotemporal activity patterns of large moths highlight potential opportunities for the conservation of this important nocturnal group and species that depend on them for survival."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Spatiotemporal drivers of large moth activity across forest-grassland habitat complexes in central illinois and their implications for the conservation of the declining Eastern Whip-poor-will, a moth specialist"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ward, Michael P","Benson, Thomas J","Berenbaum, May R"],"dc:creator":["Witynski, Grant Curtis"],"dc:date":["2023-12","2023-12-08"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-03-01 without embargo terms","The student, Grant Witynski, accepted the attached license on 2023-12-06 at 16:52.","The student, Grant Witynski, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2023-12-06 at 17:09.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2023-12-08 at 08:44.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #20159 on 2024-03-01 at 13:15:30","Large moths are known to serve key roles in many ecosystems as herbivores, pollinators, and prey to diverse species. Nocturnal plants and animals that depend on moths often have narrow diel and seasonal activity windows due to restrictions such as cooler nighttime temperatures and limited light availability. Because of these limitations, increasingly well-documented declines in moths and species such as the Eastern Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus), a specialist moth predator, have raised concerns about potential mismatches in activity between moths and the taxa that rely on them for food or pollination. Since 2021, I have been working to investigate large moth activity in midwestern landscapes by conducting hundreds of hours of insect trapping using ultraviolet-light bucket traps on whip-poor-will breeding grounds in central Illinois. I distributed trapping efforts throughout the summer across forest and edge habitats and lit traps during one of three 90-minute time blocks (dusk, solar midnight, and dawn). Moths with a body length ≥ 10 mm were sorted out of these samples, counted, and massed to determine patterns and drivers of large moth activity on the landscape. Large moth abundance and biomass increased in forest interiors relative to forest/grassland edges and generally peaked in late June relative to the rest of the season, with those peaks largely driven by forests. Moth abundance and biomass were highest after dusk relative to solar midnight and dawn in forests and did not differ over the course of the night along edges. Moth captures and mean moth weight also differed between field sites and showed complex responses to interactions involving temperature, moon brightness, relative humidity, and wind speed. These insights into the spatiotemporal activity patterns of large moths highlight potential opportunities for the conservation of this important nocturnal group and species that depend on them for survival."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122071"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2023 Grant C. Witynski"],"dc:subject":["Landscape Ecology","Nocturnal","Activity","Ecology","Conservation","Conservation Biology","Moth","Nightjar","Whip-poor-will","Entomology","Ornithology"],"dc:title":["Spatiotemporal drivers of large moth activity across forest-grassland habitat complexes in central illinois and their implications for the conservation of the declining Eastern Whip-poor-will, a moth specialist"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Natural Res & Env Sciences"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:00Z"}