WWU, Bellingham collector help launch new website exploring Pacific Northwest moths

Lars Crabo's hunt for a moth once took him to sandy soil near Vale, Ore., in the mid-1990s.

It was hot, dry, dusty and desolate that night. Crabo wore shorts, sandals or maybe it was beat-up boat shoes, and a head lamp. There were black widow spiders crawling all over the ground, and scorpions. His friend and fellow moth searcher jumped back in alarm as a snake slithered across his line of sight.