In addition to careful field notes detailing the when, where, and what of moth observations, Tveten’s entries were linked to corresponding photographs of the moths in various stages of their life cycles. He planned to shape all of this information into a book to be called “Butterflies of the Night.”

After his passing, nature writers Gary and Kathy Adams Clark, close friends and proteges of John and Gloria Tveten, set out to transcribe and publish his field notes alongside the corresponding photographs. Remaining faithful to John’s original research, this manuscript presents Tveten’s careful documentation on the distribution, history, and identification of 100 Texas moth species, while incorporating his descriptive phrases into as many species accounts as possible. It is not intended as a field guide; rather, Book of Texas Moths takes readers into the mind of a disciplined naturalist as he conducted important original research.