Troy Meadows is a special place ... Located and centered in the northeastern quadrant of Morris County, Troy Meadows is a remnant of Glacier Lake Passaic. Ancient Lake Passaic was formed by waters released from a retreating Wisconsin Glacier, 12-14,000 years ago. So when you take a stroll through the Meadows today what you're really doing is walking on the bottom of a draining lake bed, ancient and enduring! The waterways that run through the Meadows include the tranquil Troy Brook and Whippany River. All tributaries to the Passaic River - Troy Brook empties into the Whippany River, the Whippany empties into the Rockaway River, and the Rockaway eventually empties into the Passaic River. During the past 12,000 years this ancient glacier lake has been dewatering through an arterial network of rivulets, tributaries, streams, and rivers; the Passaic River being the last in the series. Eventually this river drains all watersheds associated with it (the Meadows being part of both the Passaic and Whippany River Watersheds) through a gorge at Paterson Falls and into the Newark Bay and where inevitably the water is destined for the Atlantic Ocean. In response to all this draining a series of dominantly-based bottomland habitats have emerged. The Meadows is just one of series of ecologically complex mosaics that transect three counties and thirty miles. Most people in the region recognize the others before giving our beloved Meadows a second thought. The Great Swamp, the largest, and what was the deepest part of the glacial lake is probably the best known and most cared for. Black Meadows, Hatfield Swamp, and Great Piece Meadows are ecologic homologues with Great Swamp and Troy Meadows, but of varying size and scope. Today as this ancient lake continues to dry-up it has become a panoply of wetlands - marsh, bottomland forest, wet meadows, floodplain, and swamp - interspersed here and there with upland deciduous forest. All these sub-habitat types are the playgrounds for plants, animals and our treasured moths!

Moths are in the class of "Insecta" - Insects are invertebrates with three parts to its body and six legs.

Moths and butterflies are in the order Lepidoptera, translated to mean "scaly wings" - fitting as their wings are made of microscopic scales.

The suborder Heterocera include moths while the suborder Rhopalocera include all butterflies.

Moths evolved long before butterflies; fossils containing impressions of their former selves have been dated to be 190 million years old. Both types of Lepidoptera are thought to have evolved with flowering plants, mainly because most modern species feed on flowering plants, as adults and larvae. One of the earliest species thought to be a moth-ancestor is archaeolepis mane, whose fossil fragments show scaled wings similar to caddisflies.

There are several difference between moths and butterflies. Generally butterflies fly during the day and moths fly after dusk. They are most active when the temperature is 80°F, but some species can emerge in winter when temperatures reach the 40's. Moths are generally thick and furry (raised scales) while butterflies are more slender and smooth. Butterfly antennas are slender and thread-like with swollen or club ends, moth antennas are usually feathery. Butterflies rest with their wings folded, moths rest with their wings out and open. These descriptions sometimes overlap, as some species of moths and butterflies can have one or more characteristics specific with what is thought of as common traits for each group.

There are four stages to the life of a moth - first there is the "egg." It hatches into a "larvae" - called a caterpillar. The caterpillar is an "eating machine," it molts out of its skin many times as it grows. Each growth stage is called an instar. Most eventually build "cocoons" where they go through metamorphism. The final stage is called the adult when emergence from the cocoon is complete – the majority of images included in this online guide represent the species in its final form before the life history process begins anew.