Hi All,
Dr. Rolf Oberprieler has sent me checklists and many notes for African species from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. I have corrected many spelling errors from my original lists/files, and have updated lists and have added brackets around author & date of species names (when in a genus other than the original one), consistent with the ICZN. Many thanks to Dr. Oberprieler for this major contribution.
From South Africa I have delisted Aurivillius aratus, Imbrasia epimethea, Imbrasia ertli. See files for other updates.
Rolf also provided me with common names and some interesting notes. Images to come soon! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have also written a very short article about the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature to explain some of the changes I am making to individual species files. The article can be accessed in Bill's Articles section.
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Special Notice
The usual egg offerings are posted on site at
These species can be shipped anywhere in the world. I do accept
payment with Euro banknotes and then use same to purchase
reference materials from Eric Bauer. Otherwise personal checks are
preferred method of payment in U.S. dollars or equivalent in
Canadian dollars.
http://www.s89032563.onlinehome.us/livestock.htm
It has been cold and wet here on P.E.I. this spring. My stock should start emerging any day now so it is not too late to get orders in for eggs.
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Katsumi Ishizuka of Japan has just sent me images of Antheraea yamamai ussuriensis, Antheraea yamamai yoshimotoi and Rhodinia jankowskii hokkaidoensis, all from Japan from the collection of Mr. Kishida.
Mr. Kishida is very interested in the Arctiidae (worldwide) and welcomes trades and correspondence. Email:kishida@po2.hosen.ne.jp
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Dave Wikle sent me a beautiful image of a Hemileuca neumoegeni larva from Nevada. Image up in photo section and also on species file. Dave also sent a very nice image of Catocala ilia zoe, uploaded to Catocala site.
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WANTED: I am looking for high quality images of North American butterfly larvae and Catocala larvae for internet display. I am also very interested in publishing state by state checklists for Catocala, the beautiful underwing moths. Some species are flying now (southwestern U.S. and Texas); some will fly into November. Please send me images and sighting data. I also have a Japanese contact (possibly two) who would like to exchange Japanese species for North American or European species. Email me if you are interested.
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Jeff Marcus sent me extensive records (Kentucky Saturniidae) in an annotated checklist compiled by Charles van Orden Covell. The checklist provides for many additions to the USGS listings, and Charles indicates many of the Saturniidae are more widely distributed than his records would indicate.
I have updated the maps. Many of you can obtain similar papers from local Dept. of Forestry.
Thanks to all those who are sending in sighting data for their counties/states.
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Anthony Darby sent beautiful images of Coscinocera hercules, accessed from individual file and also in photography section.
he also sent an image of a mature luna larva that he has been rearing on larch.
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Taylor Jones writes, "Bill:
Examining the website map for southeastern New York,
I noticed that the
symbol for polyphemus was absent from Richmond County
(Staten Island). Since
my family returned to Staten island, in 1998, we have found
polyphemus
adults and/or caterpillars each year on the island's North Shore,
which has thousands of mature oak trees. In June of 2000, while
raking the lawn, I accidentally disturbed a pair of mating
polyphemus in some bushes. The male
took off, but we retrieved the female and released her in a
nearby park.
P.S. Back when I disturbed that pair of polyphemus, a thought occurred to me
(which I might have shared with you in an earlier message):
In places such as Staten Island, the chief threat to polyphemus
and luna
populations may well be the leaf blower. While my wife and I continue
to
conduct lawn maintenance the old-fashioned way -- by hand, and not
being
fastidious about the shrubs -- lawn crews invade our neigborhood
each week,
from March through October, removing every speck of leaf debris,
etc., from
around trees, bushes and foundations for at least half the homes.
Replay
this scene by the thousands across the island, and one can only
imagine the
loss of life among six-legged and four-legged creatures
(and perhaps garter
snakes), including caterpillars that spin their cocoons in
leaf litter or
pupate underground."
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Thibaud Decaens has sent in a group of excellent images, all of which have been uploaded to his collection pages.
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I have started taking Antheraea polyphemus cocoons out of cold storage in hopes of late May - early June eclosions:
two May 9; two May 11; two May 15.
I will start taking luna out (two May 15) and cecropia out around May 18. It's still cool here at night, usually into high 30's low 40's F, 3-7 C.
On May 18th, I took out four polyphemus, four luna, two cecropia and some others.
On May 23rd, I took out remaining stock except for Anisota, Dryocampa and Sphingidae Pupae. I will probably hold those for another week and will probably hold a few luna, polyphemus and cecropia for another week as well.
Catocala eggs will likely be taken out end of May.
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On May 18, nonmember Mike Soukup wrote, "Just a note to let everyone know I am experiencing a massive amount of Poly's here in Anne Arundel Co., MD. I had an inaccesible female calling the other night. Normally, this would result in 10-15 male poly's at my lights. I was able to find and count 113 of them all around my house - at lights, on all of the trees, bushes and shrubs."
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I suspect someone did a live/seeding release near Mike, but, as a follow up, I sent the message to Jeff Boettner who writes from Shelbourne Falls, Massachusetts, "This looks like a good year coming. I found one tree with three wild prometheas and another with two, and I haven't seen more than singles at locations for a long time. Also have seen a number of cecropia cocoons on the Cape this winter. Last year was the lowest fly counts (Compsilura) I have seen in 15 yrs so we may be seeing a bit of a response to that?? Highly speculative, but I have had a number of reports of silk moths this winter."
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It certainly would be nice if the Saturniidae can make a rebound along the Atlantic Coast.
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Non-member Craig Tufts, Chief Naturalist,
National Wildlife Federation, reports from
Reston, Virginia, in Fairfax County, May 25, 2004: "For whatever
reason, there is a very impressive, successful, single
gender emergence of polyphemus moths around our building. We have
counted over 50 males this morning. They seem to be clustered around a
shaded west facing part of building-- facing an oak hickory woodland.
"Some moths were seen flying at the front, south-facing part of the
building when employees first arrived. If there was any indication that
something like this might be about to occur, it was observing 5 silkworm
cocoons at our entry pond on a cluster of three small buttonbushes,
Cephalanthus occidentalis, over the winter.
"Given my pessimism about this group of moths however, I assumed that
they would be Compsilura concinnata food and we'd never see any
emergence from whatever species these cocoons represented. Whether the
cocoons were in fact those of polyphemus or not, this morning's
emergence was a very wonderful event.
"The polyphmus is a moth that I usually see perhaps one of every few
years. Cecropias and lunas seem more common and our employees often see
regal and imperial moths on our windows.
"Does anyone have any idea if we can expect females to emerge later than
males? Is there any cyclicity mentioned in the literature for giant
silkworms and particularly polyphemus?"
Fairfax County, Virginia, and Anne Arundel County, Maryland are at essentially same latitiude and only one Maryland County, Prince George's, separates them.
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Visit Prince Edward Island, Canada, (Atlantic Coast) this summer! My daughter has recently purchased an older home in Mount Stewart, P.E.I., and she will be in British Columbia (Pacific Coast) from near end of June til around Agust 23.
Her house is for rent on a weekly basis, Sunday to Sunday for $850.00/week U.S., the going rate on P.E.I.
Four bedrooms, close to beautiful beaches (warm water mid July to mid September), world class golf courses and close to Charlottetown (Cradle of Confederation-20 minutes) and Montague (Saturniidae "farm"- 20 minutes).
Email me for details if you are interested. Enjoy the peace and beauty of Prince Edward Island.
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Eric van Schayck updates:
male and female Rothschildia aurota speculifera
female Rothschildia forbesi
female Rothschildia hesperus lutea
male and female Rothschildia maurus
male Rothschildia orizaba meridana
and many others.
Maltagorea ornata, Madagascar; Meloanocera widenti, Kenya; Neorcarnegia basirei, Brazil; Neoris huttoni huttoni, Turkey; Neoris huttoni naessigi, Turkey; Oiticella convergens, Paraguay; Oiticella luteciae, Paraguay; Paradaemonia andensis, P. samba, P. terrena, P. thelia; Parusta xanthops, Paradirphia hoegei;
Decachorda aspersa, D. pomona;
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Mario Ioppolo has recently sent me images of Citheronia guayaquila. The moth would not co-operate for an ideal pose.
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I suggest new members read previous Mothly Newsletters as many individuals have emails posted as potential sources of eggs.
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Orders for rearing sleeves have been coming in steadily form members and non-members. Don't wait too much longer if you will be needing sleeves this summer.
I just received a big order from a tree nursery in Florida. Owner intends to offer sleeves in his store and sell sleeves and trees at same time.
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Sphingidae Express
Very nice picture of Eumorpha labruscae posted on Sphingidae site courtesy of Werner Bollman.
New picture of Hemaris senta up. Thanks to Vernon Brou for id help.
Manduca rustica was photographed in Montgomery, Alabama. Picture up on Alabama Sphingidae page. The U.S.G.S. does not list it from that state.
Alan Marson has sent me images of two different color morphs of Sphecodina abbottii larvae, posted to Sphingidae site.
Nice image of Sphinx vashti sent to me by Mary Matthews Taylor, BC.
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Catocala innubens larval image up on Catocala site courtesy of Dean Morewood.
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Caterpillars Too!, A North American Butterfly website is progressing nicely.
Darrell Gulin has just offered to help with some images. Darrell's Nature Photographs have been published in Outdoor Photographer, Outdoor & Nature, Newsweek, National Geographic, Audubon, Wilderness, National Wildlife, Birder's World, Sunset, Nature Conservancy, Popular Photography, Natures Best and many more.
His work has been showcased in almost every major nature calendar including: Audubon, Sierra Club, Kodak, Browntrout, Cedco, Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace, Day Dream, Inner Reflections.
I have already seen some of his butterfly images, and they are spectacular.
One-time-life-time registration fee will remain at $10.00 for members of WLSS until end of June.
The site also features spectacular images by Leroy Simon, Bill Bouton, Roger Rittmaster, Jim Snyder, Steve Graser, Dave Powell, Dan Janzen, Mike Quinn, Randy Emmett, Dale Clark, etc., etc.
County by County distribution maps are also being created for each state.
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I continue to update Saturniidae County Distribution Maps as info arrives. It will be hard to keep up with them all in the mothly newsletter, so best to just check your own state maps periodically. New members are asked to have a look at the maps and send in respective sightings from their own counties.
**********COLLECTOR'S CORNER:*********
Many thanks to Clive Pratt of the Insect Company which hosts our site. The Insect Company is a supplier of fine quality specimens to collectors, etc.
Clive is currently based in England and will probably begin offering livestock in the near future. Yeah!
Visit Clive's Site, The Insect Company, at
for an extensive selection of dried specimens.
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Please have a look at Members' Wish List every so often as you might be able to make someone's day!
*********SPECIAL REQUESTS*********
Save your empty cocoons for Carol Neeves. She works with the silk and would like all the empties you can send her. Carol has just set me a write up with pictures to show what she does with the silk (now posted in Members' Articles section).
Neeves, Carol, 1609 Ponderosa Drive, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57103
Janet Hightower is also looking for empty cocoons. She is doing a project on making rattles out of cocoons, and promises us some images and an article after she makes some noisemakers.
Janet Hightower, 1319 Ahlrich Avenue, Encinitas, California 92024 janet@scripps.edu
North American Saturniidae cd available to members only at $15.00 U.S. which includes postage. State by state listings, pooled images for each species. Saves you airtime if that is an issue. Please note, this IS NOT the cd of the World's Largest Saturniidae Site which I expect to have ready at $15.00 in August 2004.
Contract agreement is that copies of North American Saturniidae cd will not be distributed or copied for sale or redistribution by recipients.
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