Hi All,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you enjoy the holidays.
I have been extremely busy with some service projects and with creation of an alternate WLSS site on a location that will not require a login or password. 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 2014.
I have also been busy with sales of remaining cocoons.
I also currently have an oversupply of cecropia and luna cocoons and some new Callosamia promethea cocoons as well as a good number of Antheraea polyphemus cocoons. Thus I am posting this notice, offering some nice discounts in a Christmas special on remaining and new inventory. From now until last 2014 shipping date in December (15th) the following prices will be in effect for new orders:
Saturniidae:
Actias luna $4.60/cocoon
Antheraea polyphemus $5.10/cocoon
Callosamia promethea $4.75/cocoon
Hyalophora cecropia $6.25/cocoon
Butterflies:
Papilio glaucus $4.90/pupa (eastern tiger swallowtail) only a mall number left.
I will commit these items (short supply items) to those who respond first. Please specify species and quantities if you are interested.
Bill Oehlke
Shipping and handling on all orders within US will be $9.00 whether you order a single item or 100 items, etc.
If you wish to place an order, do not send payment yet, but please do send right away the following information in an email back to me:
1) Your complete shipping address
2) Species and quantities of each that you would like to receive
3) Your method of payment personal check (preferred) or paypal. With Paypal there is a paypal fee of 4% that would be added to your total price,
and that can increase the price rather dramatically if you place a large order. I can also accept international postal money orders or bank international
money orders in US funds, but please note they have to be international money orders.
Do not send any payment until I have confirmed your order. Hopefully I will be able to do that within a few days of receipt of your email to me, and I can let you know the total amount due at that time. On the Monday after receipt of payment your order wil be dispatched.
Bill Oehlke
Box 476
Montague, PE, C0A 1R0
Canada
Check with post office before you mail the payment to make sure you have correct postage. It might even be more than $1.15 by time you are ready to send it.
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Many thanks to all you responded to Pam Golben's request for help with images.
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Antherina suraka australis flies in
southern and western Madagascar. At one time placed in synonymity with nominate suraka, DNA barcoding suggests (Patrick Basquin) there is perhaps sufficient,
consistent difference between the southern and western Madagascar (australis) and northern Madagascar (nominate suraka) populations to warrant subspecies status.
I note that in most of the Antherina suraka suraka images that I have seen, the upper half of the forewing median area, particularly around the cell, is devoid of the black speckling so prominent in subspecies australis. There are many who would refer to this difference as clinal variation within a species, while others prefer to recognize what seems to be a fairly consistent, subtle yet visible difference as grounds for subspecies status.
My own preference as a non-scientist, hobbyist, and collector of digital images is that I like to know if there are consistent regional differences, and it does not matter to me if they are referred to as subspecies or races or clinal variations. I will also leave the determination of species up to the scientists, although I must say there are frustrations at the hobbyist level when only examination of genitalia or DNA barcoding can be used for final determinations.
Many thanks to Bill Garthe for recent submissions. Among them are two firsts for WLSS:
Antheraea taripaensis female, 120mm, Sulawesi,
courtesy of Bill Garthe.
Antheraea alorensis female, Alor Island, Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia,
130mm, courtesy of Bill Garthe.
Antheraea tenggarensis male, 117mm, Lombok, Island,
courtesy of Bill Garthe.
Patrick Basquin has recently helped me with the Madagascar Saturniidae checklist, confirming that 1) Bunaea alcinoe does not fly on Madagascar, being replaced there by B. aslauga; 2) Ceranchia reticolens has been placed in synonymy with Ceranchia apollonia; Maltagorea cincta is a synonym of Maltagorea griveaudi. I have also updated the page with two Maltagorea vulpina subspecies described by Patrick in 2013. Patrick has a very extensive collection from Africa, and I am very much looking forward to the images and additional information he will be sending.
For the first time on WLSS a verso image of a live Maltagorea ankaratra is displayed.
Maltagorea ankaratra male, Ankaratra, Madagascar,
1900m, courtesy of Patrick Basquin.
Patrick has also sent additional images of Antherina suraka and Argema mittrei which I have linked from the respective files.
For the first time on WLSS a live female and egg of Maltagorea monsarrati are depicted:
Maltagorea monsarrati female, Ambatofinandrahana, Madagascar,
1600m, courtesy of Patrick Basquin.
Maltagorea monsarrati egg, Ambatofinandrahana, Madagascar,
1600m, courtesy of Patrick Basquin.
Maltagorea pseudovulpina male, Lakato, Moramanga, Madagascar,
courtesy of Patrick Basquin.
To the "naked" eye Maltagorea pseudovulpina can only be distinguished from M. vulpina (Butler, 1880) by subtle differences in appearance (larger male antennae in pseudovulpina) and by a specific flight activity time of the male (23:00 for vulpina; 04:00 for pseudovulpina). DNA barcodes bring unequivocal support to the distinction of the new species.
Maltagorea pseudovulpina male (antennae), Lakato, Moramanga, Madagascar,
courtesy of Patrick Basquin.
Maltagorea pseudovulpina male (spread), Lakato, Moramanga, Madagascar,
courtesy of Patrick Basquin.
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Sphingidae Express
Gregory Nielsen has just sent me this beautiful image of a female?? Eumorpha anchemolus. The warmth and light of the photo brightened my day as it has been quite cold and cloudy here on PEI for the last week or so.
Eumorpha anchemolus, Meta, Colombia,
December 22, 2014, courtesy of Gregory Nielsen.
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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 $1.15 (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.
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 $1.15 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.