Psedudodirphia menander male, Lita, Ecuador,
March 29, 2009, 800m, courtesy of Horst Kach.
Hi All,
All cocoons were taken out of cold storage the week of May 11-15. I will take the naked Sphingidae pupae out on May 20 along with a couple of small Arctiidae cocoons.
I saw three Dryocampa rubicunda males at rooftop light June 6. I think there may be a partial second brood here this year. Female Dryocampa rubicunda taken at light on June 10.
Female luna eclosed June 11; male and female luna eclosed June 12; two male poly eclosed June 12.
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Alabama Antheraea polyphemus cocoons should be ready shortly to emerge in June-July. These are for sale at $4.50 US/cocoon plus $8.00 S & H. About 25-30 are not spoken for yet.
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Visit Egg availability and prices 2009: Non diapausing livestock
Polyphemus and cecropia eggs available from pairings on April 12. Alabama stock: there will be multiple broods.
Imperialis eggs are available from a May 9, pairing in Alabama.
Promethea and cecropia eggs have been shipped from New York, May 17-19; ios and polyphemus from Alabama, May 17-19. Second generation luna are expected from Alabama shortly.
Approximately thirty non-diapausing pupae of Hemaris diffinis the Snowberry Clearwing (Sphingidae) are expected to be ready late May early June, I expect they will hatch within two to three weeks of pupation. Send me an email if you are interested. Larvae are being reared indoors from found eggs.
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Bonnie caruthers sent a beautiful image of eggs and hatchling Hemileuca nevadensis larvae. She will be trying them on a variety of hosts.
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Ezequiel Bustos sent a beautiful image of a fifth instar Leucanella viridescens viridior larava from Delta del Parana, Buenos Aires, Argentina, feeding on Solanum bonariense, a new host. This is second time I have received images of larvae of this species from Buenos Aires, Argentina, so I hope soon I wil have images of live moths.
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Chris Conlan has sent beautiful images of live Automeris submacula, and male, female and larva of Automeris tristis; first time tristis male and larva are depicted on WLSS, first time for live female.
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Anthony Darby has sent images of live Coscinocera anteus male, recto and verso; first time for live images of adult moths of this species on WLSS.
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Psedudodirphia menander male, Lita, Ecuador,
March 29, 2009, 800m, courtesy of Horst Kach.
He also sends images of live Caio championi male and female, ex, ova, San Francisco, Esmeraldas; Gamelioides elainae spread male (recto and verso) and female, TQ, Naop;
For the first time on WLSS eggs and first instar of Automeris caucensis are depicted with foodplants listed; first time live Automeris niepelti male is depicted; first time live Automeris exigua male is depicted; first time live Cerodirphia speciosa female, as well as recto and verso of female; first time live Cerodirphia candida male is depicted; first time live Pseudodirphia menander male is depicted; first time live male and recto and verso male and fourth instar larvae of Arsenura archianassa are depicted; first time larvae (all instars) of Cerodirphia mota napoensis are depicted with foodplant listings.
Recto and verso images of male Pseudodirphia thiaucourti, Pseudodirphia andicola, Pseudodirphia infuscata, Pseudodirphia menander are also posted.
Horst also sends images of a live male Automeris zephyria from New Mexico.
Images of spred specimens also include Automeris boops male (recto and verso).
Actias dubernardi and Actias rhodopneuma images have also been posted.
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Marc Fischer has sent me images of second and third instar Samia insularis feeding on Ligustrum, first time larvae of this species are depicted on WLSS.
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Antheraea godmani female, Suchitepequez, Reserva Refugio del Quetzal, Guatemala,
April 2008, courtesy of Jose Monzon.
Antheraea godmani, Suchitepéquez, Reserva Refugio del Quetzal. April 2008;
Arsenura armida, Petén, Ixpanpajul. June 2008;
Automeris metzli, Santa Rosa, Miramundo. April 2008;
Automeris banus, Izabal, Firmeza. May 2008;
Caio championi, Petén, Ixpanpajul. June 2008;
Citheronia azteca, Suchitepéquez, Reserva Refugio del Quetzal. April 2008;
Copaxa lavandera, Miramundo. April 2008;
Hylesia hawksi, Santa Rosa, Miramundo, April 2009.
Hylesia hawksi had not been previously depicted on WLSS.
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Dirk Bayer sent me a summary of the results he had from chilling Hyalophora cecropia eggs for up to eleven days during spring of 2008. The information is useful for anyone who might want to delay emergence of eggs in the spring. It might even be appropriate for someone who want to delay development in late summer to have large cecropia larvae for display in public schools in September. The article is posted in the members' Articles section.
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If you are thinking of creating a website, I heartily recommend 1 & 1 webhosting.
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Sphingidae Express
Jose Monzon has sent at least sixty additions to the Guatemala Sphingidae list. The additions have been posted.
I have posted a special request for help with images of larvae of Lintneria species from the Americas. I am especially interested in images from Central and South America and from the southwestern U.S.: Texas, Oklahoma to Arizona. Help would be much appreciated.
Dirk Bayer continues to send sighting reports for Baldwin County, Alabama, where he again saw Eumorpha pandorus after a hiatus of almost ten years. Update posted on Baldwin County, Alabama, Sphingidae page.
Owen Holt sends a beautiful image of Hemaris diffinis adult from Mt. Hamilton, Santa Clara County, California.
I received reports of Smerinthus cerisyi on the wing in southern Ontario and from two different locations in Washington state, May 16-20. I also received image of Smerinthus ocellatus, a close relative, in copula from England during same period.
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Arctiidae Art
Kirby Wolfe indicates he will be sending me many electronic images of Arctiidae from Costa Rica. I will shortly begin construction of a worldwide Arctiidae site. Those who wish to contribute images of adults and/or larvae or any other stages are welcome to do so. All images that I use remain the property of respective photographers.
Horst Kach indicates he wil be sending images for Ecuador. It probably will be late fall before I am able to work on this site in earnest as there is just too much to do right now.
I do not have very much knowledge about this family. Anyone with an abiding interest and some expertise with classification, who would be willing to help with identifications is asked to please contact me by email.
This is a very large family. I probably will not have time to actively persue images and information, but I will make a concerted effort to organize and post what is sent to me.
There are some interesting/beautiful Arctiids here on Prince Edward Island, and I did rear some Lophocampa maculata here this summer.
If you begin to send images, please always indicate as much data as possible with the images: precise location, date, flight season, wingspan, foodplant, extended range, if you know it, etc.
Idalus critheus San Jose, Costa Rica, December 3, 2008, Kirby Wolfe.
Ken Strothkamp writes, "I wanted to contact you well in advance of the summer season to ask your help once again in my research project on Lophocampa maculata. Your efforts last summer provided me with the opportunity to conduct a number of experiments on the PEI variey of this species.
"This winter, I made some progress in developing the RAPD PCR method for population studies of this moth. I have a method to archive DNA from caterpillars or moths and have some very preliminary data on three populations: Oregon, Prince Edward Island (which you provided) and New York (which David Wagner provided). None of my data are yet ready for publication but I believe they demonstrate that the method will provide useful information on the species.
"This summer, I am hoping to obtain material from as many geographic areas across North America as possible. I am trying to find individuals who would be willing to send me either eggs, caterpillars or adults of the species. I would of course pay for mailing. If you are able to get eggs again (or caterpillars later in the summer) I would very much appreciate it.
"I am also interested in any photos, particularly of late instar larvae or adults, from documented locations. There appear to be a number of phenotypic differences among individuals from different regions of the continent and I am trying to document them and hopefully correlate them with the molecular studies. Any information on natural history (larval host plants, etc.) would also be useful.
"My understanding of the range of this species is across the continent on both sides of the US/Canada border and south in the mountains of the US almost to the Mexican border. The populations in the southern mountains, I assume, are remnants isolated there as the climate warmed at the end of the last ice age. There is some geographic information on this species in the BAMONA database but it is limited to the US. I am currently attempting to obtain a paper by McGugan, BM in the Forest Lepidoptera of Canada series (1958). Do you know of any more recent data on the geographic range of moth species? I have Handfield's Papillons du Quebec, which is good but only covers the one province.
"If you know of individuals, particularly across Canada, I might contact I would be very grateful. Or, if you have any ideas on how to find people (email lists, etc) I would be happy to do the "legwork."
"The eggs you sent last summer were invaluable for the work I have been doing and if there is any possiblity of you providing more this summer I would be greatly in your debt."
Ken Strothkamp
Lophocampa maculata is a relativley small Arctiidae moth. The females respond to lights here on PEI in June-July. Females will oviposit readily in an inflated brown paper bag as saturnids do. Eggs are laid in large groups and incubation time is shorter than for Saturniidae. If you think you can help Ken, email him at Ken Strothkamp.
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Catocala Capers
Many states now have checklists and there is state by state links table on new http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/catocala.html.
Corrections, additions of data and or images would be appreciated.
I am going to expand the Catocala website to include worldwide species. I am very interested in receiving data and electronic images of European and Asian Catocala. I think there are also a couple of species in Central America.
Harry King has sent me a very nice image of a spread Catocala caesia from Sunny Flat Camp Ground, Coronado National Forest, Cochise County, Arizona, 47mm, June 14-15, 1998. I have posted the image to the C. caesia file.
Deb Lievens has provided images of New Hampshire catocala with data. I will be working on those shortly. Most have now been posted.
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Caterpillars Too!, a North American butterfly website:
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A new Coleoptera (Beetles) page is being created.
This page will be resricted to those members of WLSS who have an interest in Coleoptera (Beetles) and who are willing to have their email addresses posted there for correspondence, limited to the Coleoptera family.
This list will not be available through any search engines and will not be linked by me from any of my websites. Instead, those members who register (no charge) will be directed to an unlisted URL.
Members whose names appear on this list have agreed to use the contact information solely for the purpose of furthering their interests in Coleoptera.
Members have also agreed that they will neither post this list/page nor divulge its contents nor share its contents with others.
To have your name and email contact information posted on the Coleoptera page, send email to Bill Oehlke, indicating you agree to terms above.
N.B. This is note a Coleoptera site, just a listing of contact info for WLSS members with an interest in Coleoptera.
Two new names have been added to the Coleoptera page as of January 16, 2009.
There are also quite a few members interested in Sphingidae, so I will post special Sphingidae page under same conditions. I am also considering an African Sphingidae section if there is sufficient interest and those who can supply high quality images.
A Catocala page will also be posted.
If you wish to have your name, location, interests and email posted on the Coleoptera, Sphingidae or Catocala contacts page, please let me know.
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