Actias luna spring colours, Putnam County, Illinois, May 23, 3020, courtesy of Bill Garthe.
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Hi All,
Sorry! Time slips by so fast now that I missed wishing all the moms a Happy Mother's Day. So this image is especaily for you Moms!
Actias luna spring colours, Putnam County, Illinois, May 23, 3020, courtesy of Bill Garthe.
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This year I started May 11 with one luna and one polyphemus cocoon. I have them outdoors even though the weather has been cool especially some nights. I am following the following schedule:
May 11: one luna and one polyphems
May 14: one luna and one polyphems
May 17: two luna, one poly, one columbia and two cecropia
May 20: three luna. two poly, two cecropia, one columbia; Sphingidae: some modesta and cerisyi and rubicunda pupae
May 23: two luna; one poly, one cecropia, one columbia; Sphingidae: some modesta and cerisyi and rubicunda pupae
May 26-30 whatever remains maybe a luna or two, same for poly and the rest of them.
Right now I have the cocoons I have taken out of cold storage in a wood framed box with screen top, bottom and three sides, one side for stability is plywood. Underneath this cage I have a pyrex baking tray about 14 inches long, 9 inches wide and two inches deep.
I put about 1.5 inches of water in the tray and the cocoon box is sitting on top of tray. I will keep the box and cocoons out of direct sunlight. The water tray beneath the screen bottom is to provide humidity, especially for the lunas wihich would normally be lying on the damp woodland ground. I added more water to the pyrex tray today (May 24). We are supposed to have a very nice week (May 25-June 1) with daytime temps in low 20's C. That's 68-75 F. I expect to see moths begn emerging second week in June.
Stil no Saturniidae eclosions here as of June 8, but cocoons are outside and we are having a relatively cool spring. It is supposed to warm up considerably over the next few days and I am seeing some wing patterning and colouration through the pupal shell of a couple of luna pupae that are outside of cocoons. I expect eclosions to begin very shortly, possibly before the weekend, June 11.
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Harry Pavulaan has recently given a name to the bogbean buckmoth, Hemileuca menyanthevora, named after the genus name of the primarly larval host. Harry has also named four Hemileuca maia subspecies, and I expect to have new files posted by this weekend.
"The new arrangement for H. maia is now: "H. maia (Drury, 1773) Buckmoth
"A. ssp. maia (Drury, 1773); Coastal Barrens Buckmoth; New York: Long Island; Massachusetts: Nantucket; Cape Cod; Martha's Vineyard;
"B. ssp. sandra (Pavulaan, 2020); Eastern Buckmoth; all areas previously assigned to maia except for the new subspecies and menyanthevora;
You are here: "C. ssp. warreni (Pavulaan, 2020); Florida Buckmoth; peninsular Florida;
"D. ssp. orleans (Pavulaan, 2020); Gulf Coast Buckmoth: southeastern Louisiana; extreme southern Mississippi; extreme southern Alabama.
"H. menyanthevora (Pavulaan, 2020) Bogbean Buckmoth [described as a subspecies of H. maia, elevated to species rank by Cryan & Dirig)=iroquis (Cryan & Dirig, 2020); Ontario, Canada; north central New York and possibly southern Wisconsin.
Ironically on my maia page I had examples of all the new subspecies except for the nominate subspecies Hemileuca maia maia. If any of you have images of H. m. maia from New York: Long Island or Massachusetts: Nantucket; Cape Cod; Martha's Vineyard, please send them along.
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Steve Ife sends this very nice male hybrid of h. euryalus and H. gloveri.
Derek Bridgehouse send this very nice picture of a female Hyalophora leonis from , Nuevo Leon, Mexico. It is first time a female of this species is depicted on WLSS.
Hyalophora leonis female, 8 km w Laguna de Sanchez, Nueva Leon. Mexico,
127mm/5 inches, June 2014, 1800m, courtesy of Derek Brdgehouse, digital repair by Bill Oehlke.
In January 2019, Steve Ife sent me the image below of a female Periphoba from Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador. At that time only two Periphoba species were known from western Ecuador, P. nigra; P. attali. It did not seem a particularly good match for either of those species, and just recently Steve got word back that the sample specimens he sent to Ron Brechlin for barcoding warranted a new species designation: Periphoba ifei, Brechlin & Kaech, 2020.
Periphoba ifei female and eggs, Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador,
January 19, 2019, courtesy of Steve Ife.
Over 160 new Hylesia species were either assigned named or elevated to full species status either from subspecies status or synonymity in 2016. I have been pecking away at them and creating subgroup lists.
The moth directly below belongs to the Hylesia roseata Group
Hylesia roseata?? male, Owlet Lodge, Abra Patricia, Amazonas, Peru,
September 29, 2018, 2300m, courtesy of Les Catchick, tentative id by Bill Oehlke.
I have been updating the roseata group files.
Thus far in April and May, 2020 we have shipped cecropia eggs from Illinois and Alabama, io from West Virgina and luna from Pennsylvania and Alabama.
Luna and polyphemus and promethea eggs have been shipped in early June from Massachusetts.
If you are going to order, please be sure to include your shipping address and species and quantities desired. Please also indicate when you would be able to begin receiving eggs.
Paypal is preferred payment method for eggs, and I would like to initiate payment requests from here.
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I am looking for egg suppliers of Arizona and Texas and California species that are not on my usual list which is expected to include the following species: Actias luna; Antheraea polyphemus; Automeris io; Callosamia angulifera; Callosamia promethea; Citheronia regalis; Dryocampa rubicunda; Eacles imperialis; Hyalophora cecropia; Hyalophora columbia; Samia cynthia.
If you would like to become an egg shipper to US destinations, let me know and I will send you a copy of the working arrangements I have with other suppliers so you can decide whether you want to be involved.
There are some notes (below the pricelist, now updated for 2020) that might help you know when eggs of various species become available.
1) Complete name and shipping address
We shipped first generation luna cocoons from Alabama May 8-20, with more possible near end of May: many shipped late May to early June.
2) Species and quantities of each species that you desire
3) dates when you woud or would not be able to receive eggs
4) your intended method of payment: Personal check, cashier's check, international money order, Paypal. With paypal there will be an additional 7.0% fee
as that is how much Paypal deducts from the money that I receive and/or charges for a currency conversion. The egg prices below already include the shipping fee,
but they do not include the Paypal fee, so 7% will be added if you indicate you will be paying by Paypal.
In 2018 we began shipping luna eggs on March 20 from Alabama (two orders). A second batch of luna egg orders was shipped
March 29 (four orders); more luna April 11, also from Alabama. Luna eggs shipped from North Carolina May 8; May 15; May 23-June 1 from Ohio. June 14 Ohio; June 16 Alabama
Antheraea polyphemus shipped from Alabama April 24; from North Carolina May 15; Ohio May 31-June 1; New York June 3, June 17; Ohio June 10
Automeris io from Virginia, June 6; Ohio June 12
Callosamia angulifera from Maryland; June 18
Callosamia promethea from Ohio, May 23; June 7; June 16
Callosamia securifera from Alabama, June 12
Citheronia regalis from Maryland, June 7-9; June 20; from Ohio late June early July
Eacles imperialis shipped from Alabama May 16; June 7; June 18; from Ohio late June, July
Hyalophora cecropia eggs are available from Alabama as of April 5; April 14; Ohio May 30.
Samia cynthia eggs are available from Alabama as of April 2.
Possibly we will have some Sphingidae eggs: Pachysphinx modesta and Smernthus cerisyi are the most likely, same price as lunas eggs.
Quite often during the summer months we have non-diapausing Actias luna and Antheraea polyphemus cocoons from the more southerly
states. We also often have pupae of Heraclides cresphontes, the giant swallowtail, for shiping during the summer. Send me an email if yo would like notifications on those.
I also intend to purchase large quantities of cocoons and pupae of local (North American) Saturniidae and possibly Sphingidae in the fall. If you would like to
become a supplier of fall livestock, please send me an email. oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
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Here is what is what was happening in US in spring-summer 2019. I expect similar shiping dates for 2020:
March 17: Actias luna pairings of reared females with wild fly-in males; Florida and Alabama; some eggs are being shipped March 18-19 to
southern states.
Luna pairing in Alabama March 29, eggs being shipped April 1, another pairing April 11, another pairing April 14,
a pairing May 26 from reared stock with wild male; a pairing May 29 from reared stock with fly-in male. Luna pairings in Alabama and Ohio June 3-5; Ohio June 13, 20;
Alabama June 4, 13, 15; Rhode Island, late July.
Wild polyphemus are flying in Comal County, Texas, March 23, 2019: we are shipping polyphemus eggs from Alabama April 12; again on April 20 again around May 10; May 15; from North Carolina May 21; from Ohio June 9, 16, 20; from Pennsylvania July- early August; from Illinois August 9-10
Callosamia promethea: June 25 Ohio; June 25 Michigan;
A wild female Hyalophora columbia gloveri is laying eggs in Arizona, April 1-2
Citheronia regalis eggs are being shipped from Alabama, April 16-17; from Ohio July 1, from Maryland, July
Hyalophora cecropia eggs are being shipped from North Carolina starting May 17-20; from Michigan June 21; 25; from Ohio June 25.
Automeris io eggs are being shipped from Alabama starting May 26; Ohio June 1; Alabama, June 26.
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Sphingidae Express
A reared female Smerinthus cerisyi emerged on PEI June 5. I was a bit surprised by the early eclosion, but the pupae were out of refrigerator crisper and still in the house where it is considerably warmer. I was also surprised when she successfully called in a wild male and paired. Egg laying is slow, but I will be curious to see how long egg incubation takes.
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Catocala Capers
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