Hi All,
Happy Valentine's Day. This evening I'll be singing "Love Me Tender" to you know who!
Robert Thompson has just sent me a series of beautiful images of an Attacus caesar female, an Attacus maenas female, a Caligula thibeta female (stunning), an Automeris janus female, a Rothschildia lebeau forbesi male and a Rothschildia triloba male. Check them out in the Photography Section.
Robert writes, "Prints have done very well. My sincere thanks to those who now own a complete set of the Saturnid collection. The following prints are no longer available: A. mittrei, A. dubernardi, A. mimosae, S. pyri, A. artemis and G. belina. Some other are down to their last few prints."
If you are new to WLSS and/or haven't yet checked out Robert's Limited Edition Fine Art Prints, be sure to do so via the links from this new set of images.
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My father is looking to purchase fifty to one hundred diapausing Antheraea polyphemus cocoons, immediately. Please contact me if you can provide same in $2.00-$2.25 range, or contact him directly at gamster28@hotmail.com
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Anthony Darby has just sent me images of a male and female Samia luzonica and is hoping for a Valentine's Day pairing. Got it!
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I continue to update the site with images from the CDs of Bernhard Wenczel and Kirby Wolfe.
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Kirby Wolfe and I were both sent the same image (for id help) of what appears to be a Copaxa flavina flavina female. I will post shortly. The smaller size of the moth, as indicated by Gerrit Tuinstra leads Kirby to believe it is C. flavina rather than C. lavendera. Geography is not available.
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Some time ago Reinhold Hoge sent me a cd of larvae from a hybrid pairing of an Actias gnoma gnoma male with an Actias selene ningpoana female. The images have been posted in the hybrid section. Reinhold hopes to have moths soon. Fortunately my cd player just started working again.
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Yuri B. sent me images of Caligula jonasi fallax or Caligula boisduvali fallax from Krasnokamensk, Russia near the Mongolia-China border. Images are courtesy of Oleg Korsun.
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Kirby Wolfe has just sent me images from his rearings of Automeris gabriellae, Automerula auletes (especially stunning) and Dirphiopsis flora. Some new foodplants are listed for these species.
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There are some cocoons/pupae still available from my father in
New Jersey
lunas $4.00, spicebush swallowtails $4.00, Cerisyi's Sphinx $4.00
My father's prices are slightly different than mine so inquire before sending payment. You can reach him directly at gamster28@hotmail.com
There are also very nice butterfly pupae available: Enquire directly.
I also left some Sphinx cerisyi pupae there at $3.00 each.
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Dominique Ades has sent beautiful images of a pure Actias sinensis larva and a larva from a Graellsia isabelae galiaegloria male x Actias sinensis female) F1 male hybrid x Actias sinensis female. He also sends images of adults, male and female, resulting from the backcross and thanks the extended “Graellsia hybridation group” for their contributions in obtaining, co-producing and/or maintaining living stocks of interest. Images up in the hybrid section.
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Rainer Plontke has sent images of fifth instar Syntherata janetta as well as image of cocoon and foodplant. He is also rearing Samia ricini on Prunus laurocerasus and sends an image from China 4000m that I believe is Actias ningpoana. Rainer indicates he is refering to the high altitude Actias as "sherpa".
Rainer has also sent images of Automeris larra from his rearings. The beautiful male shows the characteristic slightly rounded forewings and the thin-line mauve scaling inside the pm line. The live specimen shows considerably more white on the hw pupil than the Kirby Wolfe image (shows none) and the Claude Lemaire text image (showing only a white streak).
Rainer has also sent images of the early instar "sherpa" larvae. All are posted to the Photography section.
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Adam Fleishman sent a beautiful image (posted to 2006 Photo Contest) of what I am pretty sure is a Saturnia pavonia pavonia female. Adam had no geographic data. Have a look and let me know what you think.
I am looking for good descriptions to distinguish Saturnia pavonia subspecies and Saturnia pavoniella. ++++++++++++++++++++++
Salvador Soares has just sent beautiful collection of Actias/Argema larvae which I will post to Larvae Photo Contest Section.
He is curretnly rearing Argema mittrei on Schinus molle. Good luck to Salvador!
On January 30, Salvador sent beautiful images of male and female Actias ningpoana (posted in Photography Section).
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Robert Jensen has just sent very nice images of an Argema mimosae female and of a Citheronia regalis larva. Images has been posted to respective photo areas.
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Deb King put in a request for some help to identify Saturniidae from Cameroon. I am going to post the tentative Cameroon checklist with a map and attempt to select some representative genus thumbnails to aid with quicker identification.
If you have specific collecting data for Cameroon (date/location/species), please forward to me.
It will probably be several years before the African sections are cleared of many of their errors. I think the information provided by Rodolphe Rougerie for Ivory Coast and Madagascar is very accurate as would be the information provided by Rolf Oberprieler for the countries in Southern Africa.
Rolf, Thierry Bouyer and Philippe Darge have also provided some great help with identifications.
I recently purchased D'Abrera's Saturniidae Mundi III and Cooper and Cooper's The Emperor Moths of KwaZulu-Natal.
These books seem to be reasonably accurate, although there appear to be some errors and omissions in D'Abrera's book; the book for KwaZulu-Natal offers some interesting new genera names for some proposed splits.
I have Darge's Saturniidae I and II, Bouyer's 1999 Catalogue .... , Pinhey's Emperor Moths of South-Central Africa and Oberprieler's Emperor moths of Namibia. Rolf has been especially helpful with corrections and updates.
Much of the Cameroon section is now up.
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I have been reworking the Orthogonioptilum section and am getting better with the French to English translations of descriptions by Philippe Darge. A couple of years ago, Thierry Bouyer indicated I had misidentified some species and I think I now have most with the correct names. I am also going back through Eric van Schayck's cd images and will be uploading a few new images. I found a very nice one of an O. luminosum male and made some digital repairs. I think I also found a female O. kahli. I also moved the errors I had for O. piersoni male and female, moving the male to O. adamaouensis and the female to O. monochromum.
I have also received some new images from Vytautas Visinskas and think I have correctly identified O. adamaouensis, O.obamba, O. neoprox.
I am happy to look at other specimens from this genus. Wingspans and geography are sometimes helpful, but, as Thierry has indicated, examination of genitalia is probably necessary to distinguish the more difficult species.
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Harold Teising at mickeyt@comcast.net is looking for eggs or cocoons of Hyalophora euryalis.
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I have many hybrid images from Franz Renner still to post.
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Wayne Hsu has just sent electronic images for posting from Taiwan, Malaysia and Philippines. It will be a while before I get to them all. An image of a collecting sheet is unbelievable.
Wayne has sent images of live moths from Malaysia: a female Antheraea larissa ridlyi, a male Antheraea ulrichbroschi, males of Antheraea helferi borneensis, male Actias maenas diana, male Attacus atlas and male Loepa sikkima javanica.
From Mindanao, Philippines, there are images of Antheraea halconensis, Antheraea larissa philippirissa and Attacus caesar.
From Taiwan, I have posted images of male and female Antheraeopsis formosana and Antheraea yamamai superba. Other species were well covered.
Wayne has also provided me with an up to date checklist for Taiwan.
Thanks goes to Stefan Naumann for his help with ids.
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John Marchant sent a nice image of a spread female Copiopteryx jehovah. The image has been posted to the species file.
I have also just posted correspondence concerning dehydration/rehydration of pupae in the Questions and Answers section.
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Teemu Klemetti has sent an image of a spread specimen of Saturnia (Caligula) tsinlingshanis (Mell 1939) from Tsinling Mts, Shaanxi Province, China. The moth was not previously listed or depicted on WLSS. I have created a file in the Caligula section.
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Thibaud Decaens has sent a beautiful image of Copaxa sapatoza and writes, "Please find here two new photos for the site... One is a photo of me, while I was taking a shot of a recently emerged female of Copaxa sapatoza in Bogota, Colombia. The second is a photo of the same female, taken with a small numerical camera I received for Christmas. Colors are not optimal but resolution is OK. I have to specify that this female emerged in Bogota from a wild collected cocoon, found at 2700m of elevation in Alto de las Rosas on the Road Bogota - Melgar. That's the first record of C. sapatoza for this locality, where we collected a number of times without finding this species.
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As such requests arrive, I will post them here and hope that someone can provide the information/articles or a reference/sources.
Please respond to oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
"I would like to know in detail how the caterpillar body and limbs move. How does the digestive system work?
"In metamorphosis:
"What happens to the muscles in the pseudopods?
How do the wings develop?
What changes in the neurological system,
especially with regard to sight and smell?
What hormonal mechanisms are responsible for
metamorphosis?"
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"I'm writing to you to ask if you or other Saturniidae specialists can give me all the foodplants known for Actias philippinica. In your website you mention only Fagus sylvatica; I hope it can accept also Quercus; but the winter broods I suppose can eat some other plant. Hope you can help me?"
Anytime anyone has foodplants that are not listed on the WLSS, please pass that information along so others can use it! Generally foodplants are not considered for listing unless adult moths have emerged from the rearing.
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"Do you know if Attacus hybrids can give fertile eggs if paired (I mean pairings hybrid-hybrid or hybrid-parental species)?"
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Sphingidae Express
Jim Tuttle is very interested in receiving data from any of you who have South American Sphingidae from genus Sphinx.
Jim has requested you forward information to me. I will compile it and forward it to Jim.
Larval thumbnail checklist for extreme southern Texas should be posted by end of January.
Oz Rittner has provided images of Pachylioides resumens, Phryxus caicus and Xylophanes chiron nechus to confirm their presence in Argentina. I had not previously listed resumens or caicus.
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Catocala Capers
Paul Johnson has sent me some additional data for Contra Costa County, California: C. aholibah, C. ilia zoe, and C. verilliana, identified by Jerry Powell.
Gabriel Larrabee has set stunning images of Catocala desdemona larvae.
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Please check the Members' Wish list periodically and help when you can.
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Arctiidae Art
My Platarctia parthenos larvae (only a few) are outside in great big plastic tub, probably about thirty gallon size, under some leaves in the woods. Hope they survive the winter. It's cold here now!
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I'm making steady progress on Caterpillars Too!, a North American butterfly website featuring caterpillars as well as the adult butterflies. I will use links to flower images sent to me by John Campbell and Melody Lytle.
Several WLSS/Caterpillars Too! members have purchased gift memberships for others and that has practice has been well received.
Just finished the P.E.I. checklist! Working now on Colorado.
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