Gynandromorph larva of Citheronia regalis x Citheronia s. splendens.
Hi All,
Happy Fathers' Day (June 16). I began taking cocoons out of cold storage when I saw the first cabbage white of the year, Thursday, May 9, 2013. That usually happens around May 10, very close to Mothers's day here on PEI. I will stagger eclosions by taking out just a couple of cocoons every other day.
I will continue to take out more cocoons every other day or third or fourth day so that when I get pairings, the resultant larvae will not all be in heavy feeding mode at the same time, and the more staggered eclosions allow for problems with inclement weather.
On May 9 I took out a single heavy cecropia cocoon and a single large polyphemus cocoon, hoping for a female in each case to emerge in early June.
On May 11 I took out another polyphemus, two cecropia, two luna and all C. p. and A. i..
On May 14 I took out two polyphemus, two cecropia, three luna, one columbia, two modesta, one virginiensis and five H.e..
On May 17 I took out two luna, one polyphemus and one cecropia.
On May 22 I took out remaining cocoons, five luna, two polyphemus and one cecropia.
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Male H.e. eclosed on June 8; female H.e. eclosed on June 9; they paired on June 9. Another male H.e. eclosed on June 10. A female Anisota virginiensis eclosed in morning of June 11. I was outside doing some yardwork and had cocoons and pupae in a screened cage, covered by remay with a solid board on top. At 1:15pm, just after lunch, I noticed what seemed like a very large male Anisota virginiensis flying around the cage.
His flight was more typical of a hovering Sphinx, and most movement, up, down or sideways, was in a straight line.
His bright orange body was almost completely vertical, and his small wings, with large hyaline patches, were scarcely visible.
I removed the covering board and remay sleeve in hopes that he might fly in through the 4 inch x 4 inch rectangular opening in the top of the cage. The rustling of the cage disturbed him and he darted off. I stood and waited, hopeful of a return.
A few minutes later he was back again, and gradually approached the female in a lower side corner of the cage. I was concerned that the mesh might be too small for a proper pairing so I caught the male carefully with my hands and introduced him to the cage.
At first he showed no interest in the female, flew around in a frenzy and finally landed in a far upper corner in the cage. I felt that the disturbance of capturing him against the cage and inserting him into the cage might have caused the female to stop calling. I waited.
In a few minutes he took flight again and quickly found the female, and the two had no trouble pairing. They remained paired until around 8:00 pm that evening when I artificially separated them so I could put the female in a sandwich sized paper bag in hopes of getting eggs.
She has deposited a goodly number of eggs as of 11:00 am, June 12.
I left the male in the emergence cage as he separated from the female while I tried to ove both of them in copula to egg laying bag.
The next day another female virginiensis emerged in the cage and I found the same wild male in copula with her.
On June 6, I captured two female Hyalophora columbia columbia, one in Elliotvale and one at Access PEI building in Montague.
Most nights since then have been cool and/or wet, but I have taken Smerinthus jamaicensis, Lapara bombycides, Pachysphinx modesta and Dryocampa rubicunda males in Montague; I have taken Sphinhx poecila, Pachysphinx modesta, Sphinx kalmiae and many Dryocampa rubicunda males in Elliotvale, June 6-11.
On June 11, I took a female rosy maple at lights in Elliotvale. Also present at lights in Elliotvale were males of cecropia, polyphemus, rubicunda, and males of poecila, bombycoides, modesta, cerisyi and choerilus. At lights in Montague were male rubicunda and a male modesta. One of the poecila was a female.
A female polyphemus that emerged on June 11 was not successful in calling in a male on the 11th. I hope she will be successful, and we will not have heavy rain on June 12. The female paired on June 13.
Another female H.e. eclosed June 14, but did not pair with male from June 10.
A male luna eclosed June 14 and a second male luna eclosed June 15. Hopefully females will soon follow.
I toook another female rubicunda June 14 in Elliotvale.
Two female polyphemus eclosed June 15 on a sunny warm afternoon.
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Katelyn Mayo sent me this image last year (September) of what she thought to be a larvae of a gynandromorph hybrid.
I wrote, "Have a close look at what is believe to be the gynandromorph hybrid larva. Note the differences in colouration in the left (brownish) and right sides (greenish), and also note the differences in the dorsal, abdominal scoli: left side: orange with black tips; right side: black with orange ring at base. Additional images of larva and pupa are in the hybrid section. Hopefully Katelyn will get images of the moth spring/summer of 2013."
Gynandromorph larva of Citheronia regalis x Citheronia s. splendens.
Citheronia hybrid gynandromorph of
splendens male, left, and regalis female, right,
courtesy of Katelyn Mayo.
Citheronia hybrid gynandromorph of
splendens male, left, and regalis female, right,
courtesy of Katelyn Mayo.
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Jeff Keverline is having good success rearing several species in Texas. Here is a mature Hyalophora cecropia larva, at slightly over 4.5 inches. Most of the cecropia have spun cocoons and can be shipped now. They are not expected to emerge, however, until spring of 2014.
Hyalophora cecropia, fifth instar, Texas,
courtesy of Jeff Keverline.
Send email to oehlkew@islandtelecom.com if interested. These cocoons from Texas will be shipped only to US destinations.
As of June 3 the following spring brood (March-April eggs) Saturniidae cocoons are available (Texas stock): Actias luna @ $5.00; Antheraea polyphemus @ 5.50; Eupackardia calleta and Hyalophora cecropia @ 6.00. Luna and polyphemus anticipated to emerge in June-July 2013; calleta fall of 2013; cecropia spring of 2014. Available in USA only.
One shipping and handling fee of $9.00 whether you order one item or twenty items, etc.. Send email with complete shipping address, species and quantities desired and preferred payment method before sending money. Price quote will be provided.
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Antheraea helferi male, Zhemgang, Bhutan,
May, 2013, 1100m, courtesy of Sonam Dorji, id by Bill Oehlke.
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Ryan Saint Laurent soon leaves for a collecting trip to the Amazon Jungle in Loreto, Peru. He continues to send me many images of species, not previously depicted on WLSS, from the Cornell Universtiy Collection. Have a good trip, Ryan.
Hylesia thaumex male, mm, Moengo Boven, Cottica River, Suriname,
May 25, 1927, Cornell University Collection, courtesy of Ryan Saint Laurent.
Eubergia argyrea male, 35mmm Pernambuco, Brazil,
Cornell University Collection, courtesy of Ryan Saint Laurent.
Derek and I will be making our annual collecting trip to Malay Falls, Nova Scotia, in late June. I just read my Hyalophora columbia file, and I remember the one that "flew away when I checked our lights at dawn" in 1997 while we were staying at the Salmon Lake Lodge. I think we have made an annual trip every year since. There are very healthy, luna, columbia, cecropia, polyphemus, virginiensis and rubicunda populations in the area, and we also tend to see many Sphingidae at our lights.
One year we had over fifty male H. columbia arrive at one set of lights between 4:30 and 5:30 am, attracted no doubt by inaccessable female columbia. Another year we captured, over two nights, ten large female luna. Occasionally we get rained out or encounter very chilly weather when almost nothing is flying.
Whenever we have female Saturniidae in nearby calling cages there are males that show up in great numbers at our lights which will probalby be set up in three different locations this year. Local people have been great to let us set up on their respective properties, and we are often able to set our lights up so the 175 watt MV bulbs shine down wide power cut lines in an otherwise unspoiled wilderness.
Derek sends the following "plate" with comments:
"Top Left is a male from Ft. Steele near Cranbrook (southern interior mts) nr type locality of kasloensis (true kalso).
"Bottom left is a female from Quesnel near Cariboo mts (sub-boreal interior). This moth shows definite columbia gloveri characters.
"Top right is a moth from Boston Bar, east of Coast Mts (southern interior).
"Bottom right is moth from Shuswap/Balmoral near Kamloops (southern interior); both I think show kaslo x euryalus characters."
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Sonam Dorji recently sent the following image of a Salassa species in the Belinda-Lola Group from southwestern Bhutan.
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Reinhard Foerster writes from Dos de Mayo, Misiones, Argentina: "In this moment I am breeding Rohtschildias arethusa from Misiones. The adults are different from the Sud (south) of Argentina."
Reinhard has provided images of eggs, several different instars and cocoons, which I have posted to the arethusa file. Below is a fifth instar larva. Hopefully Reinhard will also be able to send images of the adults in a few weeks.
Rothschildia arethusa fifth instar, Dos de Mayo, Misiones, Argentina,
26 days out of egg, courtesy of Reinhard Foerster.
Actias luna larvae have spun up in Texas and a small number cocoons should be available for shipping May 16-18, with adults emerging two to four weeks after spinup. Luna cocoons are $5.00 each and there is one shipping and handling fee of $8.00 whether you order one cocoon or ten cocoons.
Eupackardia calleta larvae from southern Texas stock have spun cocoons. They are being reared in Texas, but further north. I expect they will try a second brood with adults emerging in September-October, but they might emerge earlier than that. Calleta cocoons are $6.00 each, and could be shipped in same box as luna cocoons if you order both species. Otherwise the $8.00 S & H would also apply to calleta cocoons if ordered without lunas.
Now is the time to order and pay for eggs of the various species expected to be available this spring/summer.
Another batch of luna larvae are feeding in Texas, and they should begin spinning cocoons in about two weeks. I will confirm in the newsletter if/when they become available. Polyphemus cocoons are expected at about the smae time, probalby last week in May. Let me know in advance if you are interested. Ceceropia cocoons are also anticipated from Texas in about two weeks, but the cecropia are not expected to yield adults until spring of 2014. The luna larvae that are still feeding should emerge in late June.
Io eggs and Imperialis eggs are available from Alabama as of May 23.
Polyphemus and cecropia eggs are available from maryland as of May 24.
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Here is 2013 Egg Price List with anticipated species and ordering instructions.
Please always send complete shipping address, preferred payment method, species and quantities desired, and some idea as to when you would like eggs shipped when requesting eggs.
I am now requiring that all orders be paid for in advance. This requirement does not indicate that I do not trust you. It is more a case of I do not trust myself to take the time to go back over records to see who has paid and who has not paid after eggs have already been shipped. I know it is easy to forget, and sometimes very honourable people forget. I do pay my shippers for the eggs I have shipped. That gets recorded when I send out notification to shippers.
I do not cash checks for eggs, until after eggs get shipped. That is a practice that I follow religiously as it makes sure that I have honoured my part of the transaction before I cash the checks.
There is usually a significant time delay, however, between time customers place orders and the date upon which I receive payments by check or international money orders, usually 8-10 days, sometimes longer. This requires extra time on my part with regard to record keeping.
Payment by paypal makes things much simpler for me. Payment by personal checks, sent well in advance of when you want eggs, results in my stapling of checks into my egg binder, recording requests on my spreadsheets, marked "pif" for paid in full, and then dispatching egg shipments at appropriate times when my shippers indicate they have the eggs available.
I still have a couple of honourable customers who have not sent eggs payments for eggs shipped in 2012.
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Taylor Jones reports a Callosamia promethea pairing, May 15, in Staten Island, New York.
Callosamia promethea pairing, Staten Island, New York,
May 15, 2013, courtesy of Taylor Jones.
Jean Yves-Pascal has provided the floowing image with details about the Montreal Insect Show.
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David Moskowitz writes, "The Second Annual National Moth Week will be held globally from July 20-28, 2013. It is open to everyone , everywhere regardless of level of expertise. Consider participating and shining a much-needed light on moths. Information, registration and details can be found at nationalmothweek.org"
Kirby Wolfe writes, "Our Giant Silkmoths book is finally being delivered from Amazon.com in the U.S. In Europe it has been selling very well and is being translated into German. It is now no.2 of Insect & Spider books for Amazon Canada, and it hasn't even been released there yet. Here's the URL for the U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/The-Giant-Silkmoths-Mimicry-Camouflage/dp/1906506256/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332781819&sr=1-1
"I imagine many of your members would be interested in this book, which is large coffee table format with over 100 color photos of live saturniids, and is very reasonably priced. The reviews in Great Britain, where it has been available since early November, have been filled with superlatives."
I (Bill Oehlke) have read some commentary on the new book, and it has all been very good. Check it out!.
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Sphingidae Express
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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 $1.10 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.
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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
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