Lindsay Oehlke wearing Hyalophora columbia.
Lindsay Oehlke wearing Actias luna.
Hi All,
As of this posting I have most of my larvae sleeved out with five or six tubs of cecropia larvae, eight to a tub; one tub of columbia larvae, about twenty to a tub; small numbers of columbia eggs still to emerge and cecropia eggs from a July 7 pairing still to emerge. Everything sleeved out as of July 26.
Unfortunately there will not be any Arizona species eggs available in late July-early August this year as my US shipping partner will not be making his annual trip to Arizona.
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Rothschildia lebeau forbesi cocoons are still available from Texas. If you would like to order them, do so now. They are 6.50 US/cocoon and one shipping and handling fee of $9.00 whether you order one cocoon or twenty cocoons, etc. These are expected to emerge in July-August, but may hatch later in fall and a small percentage may overwinter at room temperature. Shipments to US destinations only. There are also Actias luna cocoons from both Texas and Arizona that should emerge very late July to mid August. $4.50 US/cocoon plus $9.00 S & H.
A few calleta cocoons are still available from Texas.
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I remain very busy with creation of an alternate WLSS site on a location that will not require a login or password. The site is still a private site and members are expected to keep access confidential.
I am also streamlining the opening page to make it more user friendly (easier to find things). The renaming and relinking of the thousands of files is taking longer than I anticipated, but I still hope to have the new location site fully operational by end of summer.
The other day I received email indicating there seemed to be a problem with sites on space I rent from Bizland. I phoned Bizland to see what was the issue. At first they told me that I had too many files in one of the directories named integrity. I found that strange because I hadn't uploded anything to that particular directory in over two years. I was told I had to delete some of the files.
I had a look at the integrity directory, deleted the files from that directory and even deleted the entire directory. The problem did not go away so I made another phone call. This time they told me I had too many files (over 40,000) in the root directory. I asked how much webspace I had available. I had lots so that was not an issue. It was explained that having too many files in one directory slows down operating systems so I asked how many file I could have in any one directory and I was told that a maximum of 20,000 files was allowed, but a number closer to 10,000 is preferred.
Earlier in July I started deleting Catocala files from the root directory and will upload them to a new URL at http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/Catocala/catocala.htm. I have completed the upload to the new location, but still have to correct many links from Saturniidae and Sphingidae pages to the new location, and many links from the catocala files to the new locations for Saturniidae and Sphingidae files. Yikes!
I will have to change many links on many files to accomodate the new address in a Catocla directory.
I have also relocated the Sphingidae files to a new Sphinx directory which you will be able to access with links at http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/Sphinx/usatable.htm. Files have been moved, but I have to change links as indicated above because the Catocala, Sphingidae and Saturniidae files are in different directories.
Both of the new directories will have less than 10,000 files, but that leaves over 20,000 files covering Saturniidae so as soon as I have all the Sphingidae files moved, I will begin movng the files covernig the African Saturniidae to a new directory called Africansats. Much of this has been done, but not all as ofg August 3.
Things should all be up and running properly soon enough, but it is a bit of a nuisance to say the least. I am making stead progrees but it will still be some time before everything is running properly.
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Bernhard Wenczel and Victor Suter have sent several very nice picture of some of the recently described Lemairodirphia species from Mexico. We are working on determinations as many of the new species are extremely similar. Hope to have some postings very soon. Bernhard and Victor have also sent larval images which show more difference than the adults.
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My oldest daughter, Lindsay, has begun marketing ear rings featuring laminated moth wings, mostly of males hatched from my breeding stock or from wild males that have flown in to my caged female Saturniidae or Sphingidae. She is pictured below wearing Hyalophora columbia and Actia luna.
Lindsay Oehlke wearing Hyalophora columbia.
Lindsay Oehlke wearing Actias luna.
Lindsay also has some Costa Rican butterflies on display from the butterfly house at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company. Wings are carefully separated from deceased specimens, laminated and cut out. Holes are punched-out in appropriate places in the laminating film so the wings are free swinging from their hooks. Single or double wings can be purchased for each ear in a set.
The jewellry is durable, quite eyecatching and has proven very popular at a recent showing in Charlottetown, PEI, Canada. Contact Lindsay directly via Lindsay Oehlke.
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Sphingidae Express
Vadim Kroutov sent me images of Manduca chinchilla from Chile. It is the first time this species is depicted on the Sphingidae of the Americas website, and I have added the listing to Peru, Chile and Bolivia checklists courtesy information supplied by Vadim. You can see the images via the following link:
Rather than displaying Catocala and Sphingidae images in the newsletters, I will mention the updates in the newsletters and you can see the images by coing to the appropriate links in the Catocala and Sphingidae directories.
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Catocala Capers
Sue Cloutier recently sent me a very nice image of Catocala palaeogama form phalanga from New Salem, Franklin County, Massachusetts. It shows some variation from the other image of form phalanga that I have on the palaeogama page. The picture was taken August 2, 2015.
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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 $1.20 (2015 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. (spring 2013) and is certified to teach)
and has been working full time as of September with contract until end of first semester in January.
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 $1.20 postage (2015 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.