Hi All,
Happy Mother's Day, May 11, to all mothers. Hope you have a great day!
I usually declare the date of my first butterfly sighting of the year as Moth-er's day as it signals the beginning of the lepidoptera season here on P.E.I.
I saw my first cabbage white of the season, May 8 so Happy Moth-er's Day.
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This newsletter covers updates from April 16, to May 16, 2008.
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If you are interested in purchasing eggs or taking advantage of special offers (seldom offered species, papered specimens, etc.) as they arise, please consult the "Mothly Newsletters" which are updated at least once a week and are archived on site. There is a special link to Eggs 2008 so you can see what is anticipated with prices. Some eggs will probably be ready for shipping from Alabama starting the latter half of March. Already (March 14) some eggs have been shipped. Poly and cecropia eggs are also still being shipped May 9 form Alabama.
This is the most extensive list of North American Saturniidae that I have ever offered.
I have added a number of Sphingidae species to the eggs for sale list.
Angulifera and cecropia eggs are available from Alabama as of April 16. Lunas and polyphemus have been shipped and more pairings are expected shortly. Polyphemus eggs are available again May 2, 9.
Cecropia eggs are available again from Alabama, May 5, 9.
First time offer: Papilio (Heraclides)
cresphontes (Giant Swallowtail) pupae should be available very
shortly. These are non-diapausing pupae from Alabama and will
probably hatch in two to three weeks. I expect non-diapausing
pupae of this species to be available off and on throughout the
summer. Only nine pupae are expected from this first batch. If
you are interested in these or in subsequent batches, please
send me an email. There are handpairing and artificial
feeding articles on Caterpillars Too! website.
There may or may not be a diapausing batch in the fall.
Non-diapausing Actias luna and Antheraea polyphemus cocoons will be available off and on throughout the spring-summer, probably in limited numbers unless I receive advance notice that you are interested. Luna cocoons at $3.85 and polyphemus cocoons at $4.25 are available right now, and can be shipped from Alabama. They are expected to hatch before end of May. There are still two male regalis pupae at $4.00 each and three tiger swallowtail pupae at $4.00 each.
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Livestock is sold out here in Canada.
For U.S. and overseas shipping, the following species are still
available from U.S. shipping locations (New Hampshire and/or Alabama
and/or New Jersey) at membership prices (adjusted up due to devalued U.S. dollar)
listed below as of April 16:
Antheraea polyphemus at $4.25 U.S./cocoon,
Butterfly pupae: Papilio glaucus at $4.25/pupa; only three
left as of May 5
Overwintering Citheronia regalis pupae (at $16.00/pair)
out of Ohio are available til near end of May. They will be offered
and would be an excellent addition to anyone trying to rear this species.
Citheronia regalis tend to resist sibling pairing, and this is
a new "bloodline".
Spring brood luna larvae, eggs deposited early March in Alabama, have started to spin cocoons (April 27). These will be available at $3.85/cocoon for WLSS members. I suspect these will only be in cocoons for about two weeks before they begin another brood. Supplies are limited. About twenty lunas still available as of May 5, May 9.
Shipping and handling within U.S. is $8.00. It will be slightly higher for overseas shipping.
I am now accepting Paypal, but please add 4% (minimum of $1.50) to total as I still get "dinged" by banks and Paypal when they do currency conversions/international transfers, and please send as CANADIAN (CAD) currency if you are going to use Paypal.
I do not have that problem with U.S. checks which I deposit into my U.S. account. I use that U.S. money to purchase stocks in U.S., pay my U.S. shipping partners, or hold it in my U.S. account until conversion factors are more favourable.
Always enquire first before sending a payment for livestock.
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Good News: Dirk Bayer in Alabama reports that he is participating in
egg emergence delay experiments. Excess Actias luna eggs were
placed in cold storage (refrigerator crisper). A non-refrigerated control
group hatched in 10 days and the first of the refrigerated eggs
hatched 14 days after deposition, after one day of
refrigeration.
Second group of refrigerated eggs hatched 16 days after deposition
after two days of refrigeration.
Third group of refrigerated eggs hatched 17 days after deposition
after three days of refrigeration.
Fourth group of refrigerated eggs hatched 17 days after deposition
after four days of refrigeration.
Fifth group of refrigerated eggs hatched 18 days after deposition
after five days of refrigeration.
Sixth group of refrigerated eggs hatched 19 days after deposition
after six days of refrigeration.
Seventh group of refrigerated eggs hatched 20 days after deposition
after seven days of refrigeration.
Dirk writes: "I'll re-do the experiment with some poly or cecropia eggs this week. I took some luna eggs out of the frig. yesterday that have been in the crisper for a month. Maybe they will also hatch."
I think it is probably important to place eggs in cold storage the morning after their night of deposition, before much development has occurred.
It is apparent that development can be arrested for at least a full week by cooling. It still remains to be seen if there is any stressing by egg-chilling that impacts the larvae further on in their development.
Other members are encouraged to participate in egg-chilling experiments. See the recommended format in April newsletter and read "Early Season Dilemma" in Bill's Articles section.
I recommend that larvae batches be kept separate so that an accurate assessment can be done to see if there are any stress problems associated with cooling for more than just a few days.
Submissions will be credited and published on this site.
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I am going to begin taking cocoons out of cold storage a few days earlier this year. We had a beautiful sunny day today (May 3) with temperatures around 60 F, and the long range forecast calls for a very nice coming week, although it still get down to near freezing at night. We can have frosts up until June 10.
I keep cocoons indoors in emerging cages, and I tend to keep the house cool. Most species took slightly over a month to develop last spring, so I am going to try for some early June eclosions by taking a couple of polyphemus, luna and cecropia out of cold storage on Monday, May 5. Peak flight times here for the four large Saturniidae species tend to be mid June.
I do like to scatter the eclosions and pairings throughout June to handle the late egg orders and also to spread out the rearing season so everything doesn't have to go out at the same time or be harvested at same time. Our weather is also quite unpredictable, and we can have a run of very cold and/or wet weather just about any time in June.
May 5: I took fourteen A. polyphemus (A.L.) cocoons out of cold storage.
May 7: I took two poly, two luna, three columbia and two cecropia out of storage as well as all S.p.
May 9: I took six cecropia, three poly, three luna, three columbia, five H.g. and six large C.p. out of storage.
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I have written an article for beginners regarding rearing of Actias luna indoors. I'll also be posting the article to a public site (also in Bill's Articles section of WLSS) so that I can direct non-members who have ordered eggs to the information. There might be something of interest there for even experienced breeders so have a look. I will also use that page to post indoor rearing observations of others.
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Over the last couple of months Ian Edwards has sent me some beautiful images. I am just getting around to posting them now. Check out Epiphora bauhiniae cocoons, Caligula cachara male and female, and Actias ningpoana male, female and cocoons.
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Alan Marson has sent beautiful images of Caligula jonasii eggs and all instars. Alan indicates they did very well on hawthorn.
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Uwe Kauz has just sent images taken by his som in Wallis, Switzerland of Graellsia isabelae in copula.
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Charles Bordelon has sent a very nice image of a spread specimen of Hemileuca maia female that his wife captured in Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas, last December. I have posted the image to the Charles Bordelon/Ed Knudson, TLSSS collection.
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Taylor Jones has sent images of bluish prepupal Citheronia regalis larvae from last year's rearings. One view provides excellent coverage of the head, thoracic horns and markings on upper thorax. A second view nicely captures a special interest Taylor's cat has in one of these larvae.
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Chuck Vaughn in California writes (April 13), "I have euryalus ova available if anyone is interested. I've had 3 females hatch from 2006 cocoons, and I got matings with wild males. Instead of releasing the males like I did last year, I killed the males to make sure they couldn't come back and mate with a different female. None of the 2007 cocoons have hatched yet. I expect to have about 400 eggs after tonight.
"Here are my (Chuck Vaughn) terms:
"1st dozen - $10
"additional dozens - $4ea
"Payment must be by PayPal. Use my e-mail address on PayPal to find
me.
"I must receive payment by April 18 to be sure I can get the ova out
in time.
"If I get more ova I may be able to offer those later."
Contact Chuck directly via email at
Chuck Vaughn
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Non-member John Handford sent me a nice image of a female Rothschildia erycina nigrescens female from Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. The image was taken in late January.
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New member Rakha Singh of the United Kingdom maintains a website at www.butterflyimages.co.uk.
Rakha offers enlarged prints of worldwide butterflies and will soon be expanding to include some Saturniidae.
Check out the website!
I have not seen the finished product, but it sounds interesting. The prints, which can come in a variety of sizes, would probably make spectacular displays.
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Sighting Reports
I am very interested in receiving sighting reports (date and specific location, including county/parish and state and/or province) for Saturniidae and Sphingidae throughout the year. The reports will be posted in newsletters and will also be used to update the state files and flight times.
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Sphingidae Express
I have added a number of Sphingidae species to the eggs for sale list.
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Arctiidae Art
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Catocala Capers
Dirk Bayer sent an image of a mature Catocala ilia larva from southern Alabama.
Dirk Bayer has been taking Catocala similis at lights, May 10-11, Bon Secour, Alabama.
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Caterpillars Too!, a North American butterfly website:
Alabama pages have been updated.
I am adding hand pairing and force feeding articles to Caterpillars Too! website. This site has also moved to a username, password location. CT members who have not yet submitted passwords for the new location should do so. Password has to be a minimum of seven letters, no punctuation, no spaces, and for consitency, please use all lower case letters.
Direct links to Sphingidae pictoral thumbnail checklists for respective counties are also being added to CT homepages. Checklists for Catocala at the state level are also being added.
Caterpillars Too! is distinct from WLSS. CT covers North American butterflies and their larvae. One-time-life-time registration fee is $20.00.
I have also added or am in process of adding spreading techniques, hand pairing and force feeding articles to the Caterpillars Too! homepages.
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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.
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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