We managed to trap most nights apart from a couple of nights when staying at urban hotels.
432 records in total of 191 provisionally identified species HERE.
Surprisingly, according to ChatGPT there are only 850 or so moth species recorded for Ghana. Ghana I-Nat moth project records 798 species HERE. The I-Nat project also has me as having recorded the most species in Ghana which is frankly ridiculous as I've only been doing it a week.
In comparison to the butterflies which are well studied in West Africa, Ghana has over 950 species recorded which implies the moth fauna of Ghana is under-recorded. There are about 3500-4000 butterfly species in Africa so about a quarter have been recorded in Ghana.
Considering there are probably between 17-18000 moth species in Africa and 7000 have been recorded in South Africa alone, it implies that Ghana's moths are very unrecorded (only about 5% of the African total have been recorded in Ghana). ChatGPT also states that in the wider Afrotropical region there could be tens of thousands of moth species which are still undiscovered and undescribed.
Basically it all sounds like a very exciting area to be focused on with a real possibility of finding something exciting. It will certainly be a big task to learn the moths of Ghana but have to start somewhere so here's a few pics from this trip with some provisional identifications and will update this as I go along.
ANKASA
The stunning Eudaemonia argus
Imbrasia sp
Nephele aequivalens
Comma Nephele
Polyptychus carteri
Common Striped Hawkmoth
Large Striped Hawkmoth
Purple-edged Pearl
Mazuca haemagrapha
Mullberry Hawkmoth
Alpenus maculosa
Fulvous Hawkmoth
Whitebanded Nephele
KAKUM
MOLE
Not a moth but the stunning Cream-bordered Charaxes
African Hummingbird Hawkmoth
The familiar Scarce Bordered Straw
Sundowner Moth
Mediterranean Brocade
