Hi All,
This newsletter covers updates from July 17, to August 16, 2008.
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Freshly spun (July 29+) luna cocoons from Alabama are available now and probably for the next week or so at $3.85/cocoon plus $8.00 shipping and handling. These hatched around August 15. Fresh eggs available.
Luna eggs expected shortly (now, August 1, 9, 16 from Alabama and New Jersey).
Eacles imperialis eggs available from Alabama and Pennsylvania (July 30-August 2). Joel Szymczyk reports a peak flight of E. imperialis in Houston County, Alabama, August 9, 2008.
Automeris iris hesselorum (Lemaire equates with nominate hesselorum) eggs (seldom offered) are available now (July 30-August 2, maybe longer) from Arizona. Food plants include Desert willow, Kidney wood, Mimos, Oak, Pin oak and False acacia.
Eggs of many species are currently (July 26 - early August) being shipped from Arizona: Eacles oslari, Antheraea oculea, Citheronia sinaloensis, Eupackardia calleta, Hyalophora gloveri, etc.
Sorry, Arizona shipments are available only in US. It is hot down there and hard to get them to European destinations in time.
Automeris io eggs available now from Alabamna, August 16.
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Pupae of Brahmaea certhia are available at $8.00/pupa now (August 14) plus $8.00 S & H. They should hatch in 2-3 weeks. This species broods continuously. Send me an email for details on availability.
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If you are interested in purchasing eggs or taking advantage of special offers (seldom offered species, papered specimens, etc.) as they arise, please consult the "Mothly Newsletters" which are usually updated at least once a week and are archived on site. There is a special link to Eggs 2008 so you can see what is anticipated with prices.
The Arizona collecting trip is still on for late July into early August. Check out the Arizona species anticipated via the link above.
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As of July 2008, Vu Van Lien has sent me images of Actias chapae, Actias rhodopneuma, Antheraea roylii, Antheraeopsis mezops, Archaeoattacus edwardsii, Loepa diversiocellata, Salassa fansipana, Salassa tonkiniana, Saturnia pyretorum, Saturnia (Rinaca) anna, Saturnia (Rinaca) lesoudieri, Solus parvifenestratus.
Interesting data is also coming. There is good possibility that livestock and specimens will be available from Vu Van Lien in near future.
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Roger Kendrick has just sent a beautiful image of a female Samia wangi from Hong Kong, taken June 22, 2008.
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Taylor Jones has just sent beautiful images of Antherina suraka larvae form his rearings.
Antherina suraka on Liquidambar styracifolia, sweetgum, courtesy of Taylor Jones
Steve Ife has sent a beautiful image of Hyalophora euryalus larvae from British Columbia.
Steve has also sent images of hybrid larvae from H. c. columbia male x H. euryalus female.
H. columbia columbia male x H. euryalus female.
Ian Surman has just sent a beautiful image of a fourth instar Argema mittrei larva.
Argema mittrei on Liquidambar from hand pairing, courtesy of Ian Surman
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Alan Marson has just sent a beautiful set of images of eggs and all instars and cocoon of Loepa anthera from China.
Loepa anthera fifth instar, China, courtesy of Alan Marson.
Images arrived today (August 9) of eggs and all instars of Titaea tamerlan amazonensis. Alan also sent his own image, which I have uploaded to his credits page.
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In mid July, Uwe Kauz sent me additional images of prepupal Dirphia panamensis fassli larvae. I have just got around to posting them now to the fassli file. I still have an entire set of images from Leroy Simon to work through and also have a few more from Horst Kach.
It is raining again today so I have begun work on Horst's outstanding images from Ecuador, and have just uploaded male Rhescynthis hermes from Rio Landayacu, Pastaza Province; male Pseudodirphia eumedidoides Lumbacqui, Sucumbios Province; and fourth and fifth instar larval images of Copaxa simson from Los Bancos, Pichincha province.
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May 5: I took fourteen A. polyphemus (A.L.) cocoons out of cold
storage. These had been exposed to freezing temperatures in Alabama as late fifth instar larvae.
Male poly eclosed June 8; sporadic eclosions throughout summer
as late as July 17; some have still not emerged, but seem viable as of July 19.
A female eclosed on July 20. Additional females eclosed on July 24. To my great surprise, fresh wild male
polyphemus are still responding as late as July 25-26. The latest I had seen them here before was July 10.
I had taken a female at a light on July 10, but it was very difficult to get subsequent larvae through to cocoon
stage due to onset of cooler weather. I think it would take a prolonged warm fall for any eggs deposited at this time
to develop to cocoon stage. We had a cool wet spring.
Another female polyphemus eclosed on August 8.
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Robert Vuattoux has sent images of an unusual pairing: Epiphora bauhiniae male x Eupackardia calleta female. Robert has also sent an image of a male hybrid from Actias sinensis male x Actias sinensis female, and he has sent an image of a hybrid larva from Hyalophora columbia x Hyalophora euryalus. All have been posted to the hybrid section.
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Joel Szymczyk (Houston County, Alabama) reports (image uploaded) a fifth instar Eacles imperialis larva feeding on his one of his ornamental junipers, August, 8, 2008. He writes, "I pretty much hate those trees and have been seriously thinking about chopping them all down. They are fairly infested with "bagworm" moths, and one tree was completely killed this year by them. Anyhow I was very surprised to see this eating juniper because there are so many decent oaks to choose from.
"Not five minutes later, I saw an adult Eacles (form nobilis) hanging in one of the junipers. Definitely a female, and it was ovipositing. This has to be one of the most massive moths in the eastern USA- cecropia certainly has larger wing area, but the body of this imperialis is just huge. I guess I'll keep the trees, but I have to figure out how to get rid of the bagworms.
"As for the forms of Eacles imperialis, we've seen them here from almost completely yellow to almost completely purple. There is a flight peak right now here, and last night @ 0130 I had 6 males at my light. They showed the complete range of yellow-purple. It makes me wonder if the forms assigned to such a variable species are worth anything? I have some ova from the female pictured in my e-mail (image uploaded), and will try to rear them through. If I can get them through to adulthood, it will be interesting to see if they vary at all.
"Also last night had A. luna, and three Anisota stigma males show up. Things are not anywhere near the volume here as in other places, but there has been steady Saturniid activity."
On August 7 Joel had written, "Last night I confirmed Anisota stigma in the back yard. Also another good surprise, a female Callosamia angulifera! This is sort of surprizing to me, because my house isn't really out in the woods. We're in a rural area, but mostly farm land with patches of hardwoods and pines around, but not exactly right next to us. There are oaks and pines through the neighborhood. I have four "water oaks" in my yard which are large enough to host some moths. I've also planted a wild black cherry, sassafrass, two sweetgums, a pecan- but they are all too small to really host anything yet. The sweetgums might be large enough next year. I also have two Tulip-Poplars which are 20-some feet tall which I planted a couple years ago specifically for tiger swallowtails and angulifera. The tulip trees are not really thriving though so I don't know how they will do. We had a bad storm through here this evening, but I turned the lights on after it cleared to see what might show up. I'm still hoping to get some Automeris io to rear on my oaks. They are common here when they fly, several times per year, but I haven't yet found a female."
I have updated the Alabama maps to reflect Joel's sightings.
Glad to read that Joel is planting a "Saturnid Garden".
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Sighting Reports
I am very interested in receiving sighting reports (date and specific location, including county/parish and state and/or province) for Saturniidae and Sphingidae throughout the year. The reports will be posted in newsletters and will also be used to update the state files and flight times.
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Sphingidae Express
Hyles euphorbiae seems to be greatly expanding its range in midwestern US as sighting are arriving from western Iowa and Nebraska.
Daniel Marlos from What's That Bug has begun to send me contact info for people sending him Sphingidae images. This has resulted in about ten new county pictoral checklists being created for different states.
I have also just begun to update the state by state Sphingidae checklists based on James P. Tuttle's The Hawk Moths of North America. James has species listed for many states that are not included on the USGS site.
I am very interested in receiving electronic images of Sphingidae adults/larvae from your area. Please always send data with image(s): date; location: (city/town, county/parish, state/province, country).
Many new county thumbnail pictoral checklists have been created recently.
Smerinthus cerisyi larvae have pupated as of July 31. Darapsa choerilus are starting to pupate August 1-3. I have Paonias excaecata, Pachysphinx modesta, Sphinx drupiferarum and Smerinthus jamacensis sleeved out, and also have a small number of Ceratomia undulosa larvae that I am rearing indoors in tubs due to lack of access of sleevavble lilac.
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Sphingidae Updates
I recently received a request from an Orthodox priest in Russia. He is looking for a pair of Eumorpha typhon. If anyone from Arizona or New Mexico can help with this request, please let me know.
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Arctiidae Art
I am trying some Lophocampa maculata this summer, based on an egg request I got from Oregon. Eggs incubate for about seven days.
Mature larvae are very colorful, but the adult moths are small and nothing spectacular to this eye.
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Catocala Capers
Owen Holt has sent some data and images for California.
Tom Middaugh has sent very nice image of spread Catocala nuptialis recto and verso from Worthington, Nobles County, Minnesota.
Tom has also sent an image of Catocala amestris from Vermillion, Clay County, South Dakota.
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Caterpillars Too!, a North American butterfly website:
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A new Coleoptera (Beetles) page is being created.
This page will be resricted to those members of WLSS who have an interest in Coleoptera (Beetles) and who are willing to have their email addresses posted there for correspondence, limited to the Coleoptera family.
This list will not be available through any search engines and will not be linked by me from any of my websites. Instead, those members who register (no charge) will be directed to an unlisted URL.
Members whose names appear on this list have agreed to use the contact information solely for the purpose of furthering their interests in Coleoptera.
Members have also agreed that they will neither post this list/page nor divulge its contents nor share its contents with others.
To have your name and email contact information posted on the Coleoptera page, send email to Bill Oehlke, indicating you agree to terms above.
N.B. This is note a Coleoptera site, just a listing of contact info for WLSS members with an interest in Coleoptera.
There are also quite a few members interested in Sphingidae, so I will post special Sphingidae page under same conditions. I am also considering an African Sphingidae section if there is sufficient interest and those who can supply high quality images.
A Catocala page will also be posted.
If you wish to have your name, location, interests and email posted on the Coleoptera, Sphingidae or Catocala contacts page, please let me know.
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