Dacunju jucunda male, Serra do Mar, Atlantic Forest, Regua, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
courtesy of Nigel Voaden via Ryan Saint Laurent.
Hi All,
Now is the time to order eggs from Arizona. Please visit 2014 Eggs Prices and Ordering Instructions.
As of August 1, Antheraea polyphemus and Rothschildia lebeau forbesi cocoons are available from Texas. The polyphemus are expected to eclose in late August to early September and the forbesi are expected to eclose in the fall, late September to November. The polyphemus are $4.50 each and the forbesi are $5.50, and there is one shipping and handling fee of $9.00 no matter how many cocons you order.
If you wish to place an order, please specify quantities desired (discounts on twenty or more cocoons), and please provide complete shipping address and indicate payment method: personal check or Paypal.
I have been so busy tending larvae and identifying Sphingidae and Catocala with postings to appropriate pages that I have little time to work on Saturniidae. I hope to have considerable more time for WLSS once most of the harvesting is done by mid September. I have some modesta and rubicunda which are currently in pupation tubs.
We had a late season here and most of the larvae are only in late second or early third instar at this time (August 1, 2014).
I have begun to harvest the first luna and cecropia cocoons, August 8-9. I opened some sleeves of Hyalophora columbia today, August 13, and saw at least on larva preparing to spin on a juniper trunk. Polyphemus larvae appear to be at least 2.5-3 weeks away from spinup.
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Ryan Saint Laurent alerted me that an image of a live Dacunju jucunda was posted on a Flickr page. I was granted permission to post the image by photographer Nigel Voaden. It is first time a live specimen of this species is displayed on WLSS.
Dacunju jucunda male, Serra do Mar, Atlantic Forest, Regua, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
courtesy of Nigel Voaden via Ryan Saint Laurent.
Jurgen Vanhoudt has been rearing many species, including Syntherata escarlata on Ligustrum. He has sent beautiful images of all instars. Images have been posted to escarlata file. It is the first time all instars have been depicted on WLSS. It is first time a live female escarlata is displayed on WLSS.
Syntherata escarlata fifth instar on Ligustrum,
courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Syntherata escarlata female, reared on Ligustrum,
courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Automeris frankae male, Sinaloa, Mexico,
courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Automeris frankae female, Sinaloa, Mexico,
courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Images of Anisota virginiensis male and females; Automeris naranja male and females; Automeris larra male; Actias sjoeqvisti instars 2-5 have all been added to respective files.
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Howard writes, August 9, 2014: "Hi Bill. Try this one. I think a Saturniid. Found on a branch overhanging the road at Canopy Tower in Soberania National Park, Panama. It is huge - about 4.5 inches. Any thoughts?"
I reply (more or less by process of elimination), "Hi Howard,
"It is one of the Automeris species in the Automeris egeus Group.
I only have one species known from Panama in that group and that is
Automeris postalbida in the postalbida subgroup.
"Your larva is a pretty good match for Automeris postalbida, but your larva seems paler
than typical postalbida. That could be because of the brightness of
the sun, or it could be that your larva is one of the more recently
described Automeris in the same group and subgroup, but thus far only
known from nearby Costa Rica (silkae, vanschaycki, anikmeisterae).
"These are all relatively large Automeris and would be a good match, in size, for the larva you found.
Automeris egeus is also a pretty good match, (but darker, like postalbida) but I do not have it ranging into Panama.
Thanks for thinking of me."
Bill Oehlke
Howard responds, "Bill. I think you nailed it. I have seen the adult, but never matched it with its larva. Thanks for your help. We could use you down here."
I subsequently requested permission to post image to this page and permission was granted by Howard.
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Jeff Gilbert has sent me an interesting report/observations regarding forbesi:
"What else I noticed about them, was emergence was staggered. Out of the 9 pupae I bought 5 were female to 4 males.
The ones I have now are from the first pairing just two weeks after they were received. Then 2 females popped out and no males; both died in the cage.
Then nothing until July 15th: another female out and on the 17th another male with a 2nd pairing.
Those cats are just now going into the second instar (late July).
Something else I noticed with the last female that emerged, she actually called in a male promethea and they mated, but the ova were infertile. Interesting bug for sure."
It now appears for sure that there are three annual broods of this species from southern Texas with flights in March-April; June-July; September-November; with sporadic eclosions of adults and possibly mixed voltinism within a brood, i.e, some pupae will develop and emerge during next flight months while other pupae seem to go into diapause and do not emerge until the following spring. This species should not be subjected to freezing temperatures during overwinter storage.
Jeff Gilbert also reports the larvae do very well on lilac.
Rothschildia lebeau forbesi on lilac, courtesy of Jeff Gilbert.
Matthew Nochisaki has had a recent eclosion.
Citheronia regalis female, August 3, 2014,
courtesy of Matthew Nochisaki.
Many of you received Citheronia regalis eggs from Ty Clark in Maryland this year. Ty writes, "Well the results of my experiment with Pecan are about in. I was only able to rear four larvae on my small tree due to its size, but they all came in as the largest regalis I’ve ever reared, and substantially larger than any of the 500 or so that I’ve reared on sweetgum, sycamore, sumac, hickory, or walnut. They about stripped the entire tree so I’m going to baby it next year."
Citheronia regalis fifth instar on pecan, Maryland,
courtesy of Ty Clark.
Saturnia (Rinaca) zuleika first instar, Yunnan, China,
courtesy of Alan Marson.
Saturnia (Rinaca) zuleika second instar, Yunnan, China,
courtesy of Alan Marson.
Saturnia (Rinaca) zuleika third instar, Yunnan, China,
courtesy of Alan Marson.
Saturnia (Rinaca) zuleika fourth instar, Yunnan, China,
courtesy of Alan Marson.
Saturnia (Rinaca) zuleika fifth instar, Yunnan, China,
courtesy of Alan Marson.
Saturnia (Rinaca) zuleika cocoons, Yunnan, China,
September 2013, courtesy of Alan Marson.
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Sphingidae Express
I have recently received a number of sighting images of Eumorpha achemon adults, mostly from the western half of US; Eumorpha pandorus adults, mostly from the eastern half of the US, and Sphecodina abbottii larvae from northeastern North America (US and Canada).
Many thanks to Greg Nielsen who supplies the beautiful image below, confirming a presence in Colombia. It is the first time a live Isognathus caricae is depicted on Sphingidae of the Americas website. It is also the first confirmation I have for Colombia.
Isognathus caricae, Colombia, Dept. Meta, Km 13 via Acacias, Villavicencio,
04°03’55.0 N 073°41’87.0 W at 500m, photo G. Nielsen VIII-7-2014
Dr Mark A. O'Neill
39 Delaval Terrace
Gosforth
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE3 4RT
United Kingdom
Dr Mark A. O'Neill writes, "I am trying to get hold of ova (or larvae) of the Tersa Sphinx (Xylophanes tersa) and/or related species (e.g. X. pluto, X. falco, X chiron, etc.) in order to rear them through and compare them to closely related SE Asian and African species (in genera like Hippotion, Theretra, Pergesa etc.). "Do you know anyone who light traps, and would be able to get me some ova from a gravid female of one of these species? I find it very easy to get live material in genera like Manduca, Sphinx and Hyles but almost impossible to source Xylophanes sp. (the only time I have got them is when I have collected them myself in the Florida Keys and also Costa Rica)."
Contact Mark by email if any of you would like to try to work with him. It might be difficult to ship eggs to United Kingdom, but Mark may be able to give you suggestions as to successfully ship larvae. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Catocala Capers
I am beginning to receive many Catocala submissions from both the western states and eastern states.
Catocala verrilliana, Mount Diablo State Park, Contra Costa County, California,
July 10, 2014, courtesy of Ameet Zaveri, Co-founder, sfbaywildlife.info
Catocala similis, Buffalo County, Wisconsin,
July 16, 2014, courtesy of Marcie O'Connor.
Catocala luciana, Custer, Custer County, South Dakota,
July 30, 2014, courtesy of Lori Balciunas.
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Please note: I reside in Canada at the following address and payment for Saturniidae livestock (eggs, cocoons, pupae) and/or sleeves must be sent to me only at this address:
Bill Oehlke
Box 476
155 Peardon Road
Montague, Prince Edward Island, C0A 1R0
Canada
Postage from USA to Canada is $1.15 (2014 rate) so please use that amount on your envelope with your payment.
If you are in US and order cocoons or pupae from me this fall or winter, you will probably see a New Jersey return address on the shipping box. Do not send payment to the New Jersey address; send it to name and address above please.
This website has been created and is maintained by Bill Oehlke without government or institutional financial assistance. All expenses, ie., text reference support material, webspace rental from Bizland and 1&1, computer repairs/replacements, backups systems, software for image adjustments (Adobe Photoshop; L-View), ftp software, anti-virus protection, scanner, etc. are my own. The one-time-life-time membership fee that is charged at the time of the registration covers most of those expenses.
I very much appreciate all the many images that have been sent to me, or of which I have been granted permission to copy and post from other websites. All images on this site remain the property of respective photographers.
If you would like to contribute to the maintenace of this website by sending a contribution to
Bill Oehlke
Box 476
155 Peardon Road
Montague, Prince Edward Island, C0A1R0
Canada
your donation would be much appreciated and would be used for
1) paying for webspace rental;
2) paying for computer maintenance and software upgrades;
3) purchases of additional text reference material (journals and books) in an effort to stay current with new species;
4) helping to pay my daughter's tuition (She has now completed her B.A. (two years ago) and B. Ed. (this spring) and is certified to teach)
and has been working full time as of October-November with contract until end of school term in June.
I also hope to expand the North American Catocala site as well as the Sphingidae of the Americas site, to worldwide sites, and that will require additional funds for reference materials, etc. Both of those site are linked from your WLSS homepage.
If you are mailing a check from USA, please use $1.15 postage (2014 rate). Donations can also be made through Paypal via the button below.
Donations are not required to maintain your standing as a WLSS member, nor do they gain you any preferencial treatment with regard to livestock and/or supplies (sleeves), compared to other WLSS members. All WLSS members get first crack at my annual offerings and get an approximate discount of 10% as compared to non-members.
I do usually ask donors if they have any special requests for information on WLSS, and I try to accomodate when appropriate or within my ability to do so.