Micragone neonubifera female, Franceville, Haut-Ogooue, Gabon,
April 27, 2008,
wingspan 81mm, courtesy of
Jean-Louis Albert, tentative id by Thierry Bouyer.
Hi All,
Happy Fathers' Day to all fathers! Oops! not until next newsletter!
Automeris zephyria eggs available right now (June 3). Also available right now (June 3): luna, polyphemus, cecropia, io, angulifera; ready again soon: promethea, anticipated soon: imperialis, regalis.
Available now, June 8, Hyalphora columbia gloveri eggs from Colorado.
Euryalus again available, June 13.
Some summer Sphingidae are ready to pupate and will likely emerge in 2-4 weeks. These would be shipped from US only to US destinations. The following are anticipated: Deidamia inscriptum (lettered sphinx); Amphion floridensis (nessus sphinx); Ceratomia amyntor (four-horned sphinx); Paonias myops (small-eyed sphinx) and Darapsa myron (Virginia creeper sphinx). Send me an email with complete shipping address and number of each species desired and i wil lsend you a price quote. These may have to be shipped at different times as not all will pupate at same time. We will work something out.
Eggs of Amorpha juglandis, the Walnut Sphinx, are available, June 14. Email if interested.
I saw my first butterfly of the new year on May 7 so I took out of cold storage one luna, one polyphemus and
one cecropia cocoon as well as all of the ios on May 7.
On May 10 I took out one luna, one polyphemus and one cecropia.
On May 13 I took out two luna, two polyphemus, two columbia and one cecropia.
On May 16 I took out several luna, several polyphemus, two columbia, two cecropia and all earth pupators.
On May 18 I took out all remaining cocoons: five luna, three polyphemus and one columbia.
All of the above are sitting in tubs on the kitchen table. I will move them to outdoor cages in about a week, and I will continue to take out a number of cocoons on a two or three day stagger. I will probably take all the earth pupators out of cold storage on May 16 (done).
A small male luna emerged June 10, two choerilus emerged June 11.After some hot days in early May, it turned cooler from mid May til early June.
My father reports earlier than usual eclosions and pairings with wild males in New Jersey.
Taylor Jones reports earlier than usual eclosions and pairings with wild males in Staten Island, New York.
Don Adams reports earlier than usual eclosions of polyphemus and pairing with wild male on May, in southeastern Massachusetts, May 17.
Don also reports eclosions of cecropia and promethea, and pairing of female promethea with wild male, May 20.
Ryan St. Laurent reports earlier than usual eclosion of luna and pairing with wild male in Washington County, Rhode Island, May 17.
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If you wish to send an enquiry or egg order, please be sure to include your complete shipping address in the email text of your message. Please also give me approximate dates as to when you would be ready to begin receiving eggs.
Please note: When you receive eggs from one of my US shipping subcontractors, the return address on the package will be that of my boyhood home in New Jersey. That address is not the one to which you should send payment.
I use that address so that if something does not get delivered for some reason, the post office will not try to send it to Canada.
Please always send payments to the name and address below:
Bill Oehlke
155 Peardon Road
Montague, PE. C0A 1R0
Canada
Quite a few people are using Paypal and that is fine, but please always get a quote first on all orders, as there is a usual paypal transaction fee of approximately 4% that I need to tack on to all orders that are to be paid via Paypal.
For all orders going to Canadian destinations, I have to include a 5% GST tax. There is no tax on the orders I have shipped within US, nor is there a tax for overseas orders.
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Visit Egg availability and prices 2010: Non diapausing livestock
Actias luna and Antheraea polyphemus are pairing now April 7-8 in Alabama. If you want eggs of this multi-brooded stock now, please specify species, quantity and be sure to send complete shipping address in your email.
Luna, polyphemus and cecropia eggs are still available for shipping as of May 17. More wil be available later from various locations.
One breeder in Wisconsin is going to hybridize cecropia and euryalus. If any of you are interested in hybrid eggs, let me know.
Eumorpha pandorus eggs may be available this spring from Wisconsin. Pachysphinx modesta eggs will be available from Wisconsin in June.
Spring luna and polyphemus cocoons are expected late May early June from Alabama from eggs deposited in April. A number of cocoons have already been requested, but there may be enough for some additional orders. Moths will hatch in June from these cocoons.
There may be additional luna cocoons form Florida first or second week in June.
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Alan Marson writes, "I recently received some eggs of Antheraeopsis assamensis from China. I thought
that it was worth recording my experiences to help others who may consider trying this species. In Assam where it is
reared commercially to produce Muga silk it apparently feeds on 2 trees in the Laurel family (Lauraceae) – i.e.
Som (Machilus bombycina) and Soalu (Litsaea polyantha). It is widely listed as feeding on Oak in the UK.
I believe this to be an error probably based on misidentification of the larvae. I tried Oak first and it was completely
ignored. I also tried Liquidambar, Eucalyptus, Rhamnus, Crataegus, Malus, and several other plants. The larvae
ignored all of them except for Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis). This makes sense as the larvae feed on Lauraceae in
Assam. The larvae appeared to be feeding well for about 3 days and then all died within hours of each other.
I can only assume that the foodplant was unsuitable as there was no other apparent reason why they should all die without
even reaching 2nd instar.
When I first realised that I was having problems getting them to feed I emailed many of my contacts who are all
experienced rearers of Saturniidae. I received back a lot of suggestions, but it turned out that not one of them has ever
reared A. assamensis and those that have had them have lost them without feeding. I have heard second hand of
people getting them to accept Avocado (Persea) which can only be grown as indoor pot plants in the UK and
Liquidambar (which I tried without success).
I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has reared A assamensis through to cocoon – especially on a
plant that is hardy in the UK.
I usually do not post images of spread specimens in the newsletter. However, Jean-Louis Albert recently sent me this very nice image of a female Micragone neonubifera (tentative id by Thierry Bouyer) from Franceville, Haut-Ogooue, Gabon. The female is very different from the male, and it is the first time I have seen an image of dorsal surface of female so I have included it below.
Micragone neonubifera female, Franceville, Haut-Ogooue, Gabon,
April 27, 2008,
wingspan 81mm, courtesy of
Jean-Louis Albert, tentative id by Thierry Bouyer.
There will be about six Heraclides cresphontes (giant swallowtail) pupae available around May 25, and there will probably be more available off and on throughout season, shipped on first-ordered-first-served basis to US destinations only. $5.50/pupae plus shipping and handling. Members pay after receipt.
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Thibaud Decaens has sent beautiful images of a female Lobobunaea acetes from Gabon and of a fifth instar Syssphinx molina reared on Salix from Para, Brazil. I have added images to photography section and from links on respective files.
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Jean-Yves Malmasson has sent a series of beautiful images of male and female Citheronia regalis. They are on display in photography section and also from link on regalis file.
Citheronia regalis pair, courtesy of Jean-Yves Malmasson.
Richard Wasson has provided beautiful images of Hemileuca eglanterina larvae from Sonoma County, California. Images posted to eglanterina file.
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Mike Benton is offering dried specimens of Actias sinensis as well as of Hyalophora cecropia. contact Mike at Mike Benton to get on mailing list.
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Gary Saunders has sent me a series of beautiful images of live moths and larvae:
Actias isis male and female, Bunaea alcinoe male and larva, Cricula cameronensis female, Rothschildia lebeau inca male and Saturnia pyretorum fourth instar larva.
Saturnia pyretorum fourth instar, courtesy of Gary Saunders.
i have just uploaded many new images to Leroy Simon collection, including an especially nice shot of a Periphoba hircia sixth instar. Check it out. All of these images are available "super size" on Leroy's DVD, available to members.
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Sphingidae Express
I am very much interested in receiving and displaying images of Sphingidae adults, eggs, larvae and pupae, even of the common species.
Please alsways send data to include date and location, at least to county level.
I wouold very much like to continue creation of County/Province level checklists for USA and Canada, and am also very interested in refining checklists for Central and South America.
I am slowly making progress on African checklists and have received some nice digital images from Yokadouma, Est Province, Cameroun, courtesy of Constanza Michelle via Antoine Guyonnet, and from Franceville, Haut-Ogooue, Gabon, courtesy of Jean-Louis Albert. I still have some images from Tanzania, courtesy of David Bygott, that sitll need id confirmations and posting.
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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.
I am working on creating the text files and orgainizing names at this stage. It will probably be after Christmas that I do first posting.
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Catocala Capers
I have now completed pictoral checklists for all states that have Catocala species and will fine tune them over the next couple of weeks. The checklists have now been tweaked and already people are sending images. See Catocala cunnubialis from Florida.
I am very interested in receiving images of larvae and adult moths with data. I would like to refine the checklists to county level as I am currently doing with Sphingidae.
Edna Woodward successfully overwintered Catocala ophelia eggs deposited by a female in September, 2009.
Catocala ophelia first instar, Wolf Creek, Josephine County, Oregon,
May 24, 2010, courtesy of Edna Woodward.
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Caterpillars Too!, a North American butterfly website:
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