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Sunday, November 01, 2009
Entomologist discovers 14 new moth species living at White Sands National Monument
By Rene Romo
Journal Southern Bureau
ALAMOGORDO — You might think a place as popular and well-traveled as White Sands National Monument would not have any new secrets to reveal, but in recent years the sprawling dune field has yielded a startling number of them to a transplanted retiree from Ohio. Eric Metzler, a 63-year-old entomologist who moved to Alamogordo with his wife in the summer of 2005, has discovered 14 new moth species at the dunes since beginning his research as a retirement hobby in the spring of 2007.
"The number of new species at White Sands is absolutely phenomenal," said Metzler, who says he has been obsessed with moths since childhood. "It blows my socks off."
The discovery of the first two new species, moths whose mostly white color allows them to blend into the white gypsum sand dunes, was made official with publication of a research article in the May 12 issue of a peer-reviewed scientific journal, ZooKeys.
Metzler plans to publish research articles on the other new species in the years ahead, but he said his finds have been confirmed by colleagues at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and by other experts in the field. About half of the estimated 14 new species are pure white or sandy-colored. One moth believed to be a new species, he said, is jet black.
As large as it is, the 275-square-mile White Sands National Monument only contains about 40 percent of the world's largest white gypsum dune field. With about 450,000 visitors per year, the monument is the busiest national park in New Mexico.
Created by the accumulation of dissolved gypsum crystals that blow in from large dry lake beds to the southwest, the huge dune fields form a unique environment.
"Kind of like Galapagos," said monument Superintendent Kevin Schneider, "an island of white in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert."
Until the recent moth discoveries, White Sands was thought to be home to roughly 20 species found only here, seven that have adapted to the dunes with white coloration. Those include three lizards, two mouse subspecies, and two camel crickets.
Then in 2005, Metzler, who said he was "mainly a paper pusher" for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources who collected and studied moths on the side, retired to New Mexico with his wife. Knowing he wanted to continue his studies of moths, but not sure where, Metzler met some staffers with the National Park Service at a native plant workshop in Albuquerque. At their invitation, he submitted a research proposal and in December 2006 he got a permit allowing him to enter the park after closing and to remove moths for research.
On his second monthly trip to a collection spot close to the entrance on the park's southern end, Metzler found the first sample of one of the new species. On his third trip, he found what he suspected to be another.
"I knew I was onto something," Metzler said. "I told people at the National Park Service, 'This is going to be better than I expected.' "
Metzler says that since he first started collecting moths at White Sands at night in January 2007, "Each trip I come back with something I have not seen before."
Metzler estimates there are more than 1,000 species of moths at White Sands because he has already found samples of more than 300 species while collecting from less than 1 percent of the dune field in just one of seven different habitats at the national monument. Previous research at White Sands listed only 20 species of moths in the dunes.
With seven years remaining in his planned 10-year research project, Metzler figures more new moth discoveries are likely.
"This level of diversity is more than I ever expected, particularly for the desert," he said.
Some moth samples will end up at his Alamogordo home in his personal collection. The collection, numbering about 7,000 specimens of varying sizes and brilliant color patterns from all over North America, fills the drawers of six 8-foot-tall cabinets. His living room has been converted into a reference library with stacks filled with reference books, text books and reprints of scholarly articles, mainly concerning his beloved moths.
The rest of Metzler's moth collections from White Sands are being deposited at several academic institutions, including the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University, and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Asked about the source of his passion for moths, Metzler responds, "I don't have a clue." His parents were both professional musicians and "they could not figure out how I ended up a biologist." On their first date four decades ago in Michigan, Metzler took his future wife Patricia on a nighttime moth-collecting trip to make sure, up front, that they were compatible.
Metzler has also been collecting moths around Carlsbad Caverns, and he has set his sights on more remote areas of the dune fields that are part of White Sands Missile Range. "I think there are some really unique discoveries to be made there," he said.
Schneider said Metzler's research, all voluntary, will provide visitors with a better sense of what lives at White Sands, and how, and will enable the monument's administration to make more informed management decisions.
"People come here and sled and picnic and they have a great time," Schneider said. "Our challenge is to let them know that this is more than just the world's biggest sandbox."
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