And you thought moths were boring
© Robin Hoskyns/Minden Pictures
Comet moth in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar
National Moth Week shines the porch light on an unlikely hero. Unlike their showier cousins, butterflies, moths get a bad rap from time to time, and that’s fair, as caterpillars of some moth species are agricultural pests. But before you break out the mothballs, take a gander at winged wonders like the comet moth, shown here. Scientists estimate that there are some 160,000 species of moths worldwide, many just as stunning as our comet moth, and tracking their health often helps us gauge the health of entire ecosystems.
Atlantic puffin pair billing, Shetland Islands, Scotland
Red fox
Brown bear mother and cub in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Old World swallowtail butterflies on a flower
Southern cassowary father with chicks, Kuranda, Queensland, Australia
Elephant walking in the Okavango River, Botswana
Long-beaked common dolphin pod and diving Cape gannets hunting sardines off the Eastern Cape, South Africa
An indigo bunting at the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove in Audubon, Pennsylvania
