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Mothly Newsletter June 2021
I began taking my breeding stock out of refrigerator crisper storage May 11: one luna female, one polyphemus female and some small lunas thought to be males. Four days later on May 15, I took out one luna, one poly and one cecropia, hopefully all females. On May 18 I took out two luna, two poly, one columbia, one cecropia, a few cerisyi, modesta and drupiferarum. On May 21 I took out three luna, three polyphemus, two cecropia, all C.p., some rosy maples and Anisota virginiensis and larger numbers of cerisyi, modesta and drupiferarum. On May 23 I plan to take out four luna, three poly, one cecropia and the rest of the Sphinigidae. On May 25 I plan on taking out two luna, two polyphemus.
I stagger the dates on which I remove my breeding stock from cold storage for two reasons: I like to have moths eclosing on different dates throughout the normal flight season here on PEI so that 1) a run of cold, rainy weather does not greatly reduce chances of getting pairings, and 2) I can set out and tend to large numbers of larvae at various dates throughout the season instead of having all larvae needing to be set out on same date and all reaching maturity on nearly the same date.
I am expecting to see lunas from early June to late June, possibly into very early July. I have found from experience that polyphemus larvae hatcing from eggs deposited after July 4 develop much more slowly once cooler nighttime temperatures start usually in by second week in August. I have had some late polyphemus larvae still out in sleeves past mid October when leaves are starting to change color here. It is preferred to almost all of the harvest in by early to mid September.
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Identification Challenge:
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We will began shipping eggs from southern states California (euryalus/kasloensis; April 12) and Alabama (luna; April 19-20; April 26), with eggs from more northern states coming later this spring into early summer.
We shipped cecropia eggs May 20-21 from Alabama, mostly to southern states. We will be shipping another batch of luna eggs (three different females) from Ohio, May 24.
I have egg shipping partners from the following states thus far:
Alabama; Florida; Illinois; Maryland; North Carolina, Ohio; Pennsylvania; Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin.
If you are interested in becoming an egg shipping partner, please let me know. I am especially interested in working with individuals from western US or Texas who can suppply eggs of species not typically found in the east. I am also interested in working with egg shipping partners in Canada, and I do have one partner in Ontario thus far. I am also very interested in having a shipping partner from western Canada.
Below is a pricelist for egg shipments going to US destinations. All prices are quoted in US dollars and already include the Paypal transaction fee and the
shipping and handling fee.
Due to delays in the US postal system last spring through fall, I prefer to receive payments by payal in the amounts specified above within 12 hours of me notifying you that the eggs you have requested
are ready to shipped. Because I live in Canada, Paypal will automatically default to paying me an equivalent amount converted to Canadian dollars unless you are very
careful to specify what recipient gets in USD. Despite me sending instructions on what you should do to make this happen, still about one third of the payments
arrive in Canadian dollars and I have to pay an additional fee to convert back to US dollars to pay my suppliers. For this reason, when you send your order to me by
email pleae be sure to include the following items with your email order:
1) complete name and shipping address
If you do not have a paypal account and would like to pay via personal check, I would like you to do the following:
2) Affix appropriate postage on your lettter mail from US to Canada. I think it is now $1.20 from US to Canada, but check with postal clerk t make sure your envelope has correct postage.
This past year several customers had their payment envelopes returned to them due to insufficient postage
3) send a separate check for each species ordered and write on the check which species that check covers. If you are ordering five different species,
you should send, all in the same envelope, five different checks, one check for each species. That way I can cash a check as soon as a given species has
been shipped. Occasionally we have problems with a listed species and are not able to get any eggs of a particular species, or not enough eggs to cover all customers requests.
In such cases i can void your checks for the undeliverabe items, and notify you of same.
4) indicate earliest date you would be ready to begin receiving eggs; note, I am not asking you to specify a date when you want the eggs,
just the starting date for when you would be ready to receive eggs.
Here is why I am asking you to follow the detailed instructions above. I will be 73 years old in July, 2021. Starting in early June I am often up to wee hours of
the night (1:00 am) checking lights for wild females or cage matings, and when I do not have pairings by 1:00 am, I am often up at 4:30 am to bring in any mating
cages to protect moths from predation (birds or cats). Hyalophora columbia males fly into cages usually between 4:00 am and 5:30 am. These practices usually
continue until early July.
Often about a week after first batches of eggs are procured, I begin sleeving operations at six or seven dfferent rearing sites. I usually don't go to these sites
until after 10:00 am and usally leave the sites by 4:00 pm.. Why do I go in the heat of the day? Because once things start to warm up, the mosquitos are everywhere,
and after 4:00 pm the blood suckers are out in force again. Even when I wear a mosquito jacket, the bugs are bad. When it is not mosquitos it is no seeums or
black flies. Not good to be using repellents while once is sleeving one or two day old larvae.
Often when I leave the woods at 4:00pm I am drenched with sweat despite taking and drinking at least larger two bottles of gator aid. Sleeving and checking sleeves
and harvesting follows a similar pattern from mid June until September. I am often exhausted when I come out of the woods, and frequentyl I have not had time to
get to the bank to cash incoming checks. I need to improve on that as I still have some checks from summer of 2020 that I have not cashed.
I usually try to communicate with customers early in the morning befor I head to woods to either confirm orders, request funds, request that funds have been received,
answer questions, dispatch orders to shipping partners, notify customers that shipments have been sent, etc..
Although it might seem that I am making unreasonable requests of you, I am only trying to lighten my own load a bit by having all necessary info and payment
at time of shipping. I appreciate your co-operation and am looking forward to a succssful egg shipping season late March through August.
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Sphingidae Express
Derek Bridgehouse has recently sent me some images of Sphinx gordius from Colorado and Florida for comparison.
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Catocala Capers
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_________Actias luna: one dozen at $16.00; two dozen at $22.00; three dozen at $28.00; $5.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
Antheraea polyphemus: one dozen at $16.00; two dozen at $22.00; three dozen at $28.00; $5.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
________Automeris io: one dozen at $16.00; two dozen at $22.00; three dozen at $28.00; $5.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
Callosamia promethea: one dozen at $16.00; two dozen at $22.00; three dozen at $28.00; $5.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
Dryocampa rubicundda: one dozen at $17.00; two dozen at $24.00; three dozen at $31.00; $6.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
__Citheronia regalis: one dozen at $17.00; two dozen at $24.00; three dozen at $31.00; $6.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
___Eacles imperialis: one dozen at $17.00; two dozen at $24.00; three dozen at $31.00; $6.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
Hyalophora cecropia: one dozen at $17.00; two dozen at $24.00; three dozen at $31.00; $6.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
_______Samia cynthia: one dozen at $16.00; two dozen at $22.00; three dozen at $28.00; $5.00/dozen for each additional dozen of same species shipped in same package.
Less likely possibilities are Callosamia angulifera; Hyalophora euryalus; Eupackardia calleta; Rothschildia lebeau forbesi
2) email address associated with your paypal account so I can initiate request for funds from here when eggs are ready for shipping
3) specify species and quantities of each species desired, note all orders are listed in dozens. There is no discount to you if two or more orders are shipped to you on same date or even in same package.
4) indicate what date is the earliest you think you will be ready to receive eggs; note, I am not asking you to specify a date when you want the eggs,
just the starting date for when you would be ready to receive eggs.
5) specify whether you are okay to pay by paypal or that you would prefer to pay by personal check or bank draft snet through USPS. We do not ship through Fed Ex or
UPS onotify thatr any other carrier that USPS.
1) mail your check(s) early to
Bill Oehlke
Box 476
Montague, PE, C0A 1R0
Canada
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Answer to this months challenge: