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Hi All,
Eacles imperialis seem to be quite late this year. We began shipping July 24 from Maryland.
I received a surprising email from a local PEI resident July 24. She sent me a picture of a fresh male Antheraea polyphemus. In all the years I have been collecting at lights on PEI, the latest I have ever seen a polyphemus is July 10. Previous to the July 10 sighting I had experience rearing a batch of eggs deposited July 4. I only got a small number of them through to cocoon stage before cold weather set in. I think I still had them feeding into late October. Our nights often get quite cool around August 9, and the cooler temperatures really slow the growth rate. Typically the peak flight is mid to late June for PEI polyphemus, but we did have a relatively cool spring this year.
All but one of the polyphemus cocoons, I had stored for breeding, emerged June 9-June 28, 2017. I was puzzled by the single cocoon that had not emerged as it still seemed to have good weight. I made an incision in the cocoon and saw a healthy pupa around July 5. It did not show signs of development, however, so I thought perhaps it would spend two winters in cocoon stage. I was very surprised when I looked in the cage this afternoon, July 25, and saw a good sized male polyphemus. This one emerged almost a full month after all the other polyphemus cocoons had emerged despite being taken out of cold storage around the same time as all the other polyphemus cocoons. Strange!
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Luna and polyphemus eggs will probably be ready for shipping late June or early July from New York. Bev Powers is still getting luna pairings with wild males as late as July 24, in upstate New York. In her area, luna are typically single brooded and generally fly from mid June to mid July.
Tami is still getting regalis pairings in Ohio as late as July 23. Surprisingly her imperialis pupae still have not started to eclose as of July 25. Perhaps they are going to spend two winters in diapause. This is the first time she has seen this happen despite many years experience with imperialis.
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I have been very busy setting out larvae in sleeves the last three weeks, and have had to move some early cecropia and polyphemus larvae to new trees. Things are probably going to get quite hectic in another ten days or so. I hope I do not have too many larvae to look after.
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I have resumed working on files for the new Hylesia species described in 2016. That will be quite tedious as I think there are close to 150 new names put forward. The flies and mosquitoes are really thick in the woods from dawn until 10:00 am, so I work on egg sales and website files in the morning, and usually get chased out of the woods around 4:00 pm when the biters and suckers become unbearable. Now that egg sales are winding down I should have more time for processing files and digital images.
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Sphingidae Express
I have recently been receiving adult Eumorpha achemon images from both Canada and US. A friend on PEI recently showed me a nice image of Pachysphinx modesta on his window screen, and today I received images of Ceratomia undulosa from Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Also recently received Hemaris diffinis female nectaring while in copula with male. I have updated Whitley County Indiana page based on submissions from Tim Loeffler, and will soon be doing Wisconsin update based on data from Ian Miller. Also recently received images of Hyles gallium from North Pole, Alaska. Yes, there is such a place!
I have not been out collecting at lights, nor have I had my roof top light on since I retrned from Nova Scotia in late June. I have just simply been too busy with sleeving operations and looking after dispatching of egg orders. I'm 69 years old now and don't have the energy I once had.
I currently lave luna and columbia larvae in late third early fourth instars, and probably have a couple thousand larvae of luna, polyphemus, columbia, cecropia, rubicunda, cynthia and promethea in second instars with a small number of polyphemus in third instar. We had a relatively cool spring, delaying moth flights, and then when they atarted flying, it seemed like they all came at once.
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Catocala Capers
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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 $1.25 (2017 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;
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 $1.25 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.