Citheronia sepulcralis female x small Citheronia regalis male,
Bon Secour, Baldwin County, Alabama, May 5, 2014, courtesy of Dirk Bayer.
Hi All,
Happy Mothers' Day, May 11, to all you mothers.
I think spring has finally arrived in northeastern North America. We still have much snow here on the ground on Prince Edward Island but it is disappearing much faster now. Snow flurries on May 5, but the slight accumulation melted very quickly.
All overwintering cocoons have been sold out since March, but some of my US shipping partners in the deep south have already had luna, polyphemus, calleta and forbesi pairings and are rearing larvae of those species, so there should be non-diapausing cocoons available in late May.
Eggs of several species have already been shipped this spring.
If you are interested in shipping eggs for me, please send me an email indicating which North American species you expect to have available and please also indicate the months when you think you will have them available.
The following notes are for me so I can have a better idea of when eggs will be available each year. 2014 is showing a later spring than usual, especially in the eastern half of continent.
Actias luna: March 31 TX; April 2 AL; April 23-27 AL; May 3, TX
Antheraea polyphemus; April 4, Oregon; May 1, NC; May 4 AL;
Eupackardia calleta: March 31, April 2, TX;
Hyalophora cecropia: AL: April 25; NC, May 1, 5
Rothschildia lebeau forbesi: Texas, March 31, April 2
Dirk Bayer reports a female Citheronia sepulcralis pairing with one of his male C. regalis, May 5. Hope he can rear them through so we can have a look at this hybrid. It probably does occur occasionally in nature where the two species are sympatric.
Citheronia sepulcralis female x small Citheronia regalis male,
Bon Secour, Baldwin County, Alabama, May 5, 2014, courtesy of Dirk Bayer.
Now is the time to begin ordering eggs. Please visit 2014 Eggs Prices and Ordering Instructions. Please be sure to send me your complete shipping address when sending a request for eggs or cocoons.
The first larvae of the spring (Texas stock) are expected to start spinning cocoons around May 21 and should be ready for shipping just a few days after that. Luna and polyphemus will be $5.00 each plus shipping and handling ($9.00). These are expected to emerge in June or early July. Rothschildia lebeau forbesi cocoons are also expected to be available around May 27, also from Texas. They wil be $6.50/cocoon and they are expected to emerge in October.
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I saw first butterfly of season on Wednesday while walking in woods. I probably disturbed some brush and roused a Milbert's Tortoiseshell on April 30 in Elliotvale, about ten miles from Montague, PEI. On May 4, a very nice day, I saw another Milbert's while moving some brush on my own property in Montague. There is still some snow on the ground in shaded sheltered areas, but days are noticeably longer and warmer.
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While updating the Prohylesia genus file to reflect the new names put forward by Brechlin, Meister & Mielkei, 2012, I visited the Eric van Schayck images sent to me many years ago by Eric to see what Prohylesia species he had depicted. I uncovered one listed as Prohylesia zikani, that was either an aberration, an entirely new Prohylesia species or something that belonged to another genus. I found it in Lemaire's Hemileucinae, 2002:
Hylesia rufex male, Brazil,
courtesy of Eric van Schayck.
Sonam Dorji sends the following image. If my id is correct, it tis the first time a live female Salassa meisteri is depicted on WLSS.
I have been helping Dave Marsden with identification of Saturniidae from Cameroon and Philippines. He has been sending me recto and verso images. Many of the verso images have not previously been displayed on WLSS. I am incorporating them into the files now. Here are beautiful images of Antheraeopsis paniki paniki.
Antheraeopsis paniki male (verso), Mt. Canlaon, Negros, Philippines,
wingspan: 172mm, January-April, 2011, courtesy/copyright Dave Marsden.
Antheraeopsis paniki female (verso), Mt. Canlaon, Negros, Philippines,
wingspan: 165mm, January-April, 2011, courtesy/copyright Dave Marsden.
I especially enjoy the verso image of Antheraea halconensis.
Antheraea halconensis female, 145mm, Mt Canlaon, Negros, Philippines,
courtesy of Dave Marsden, id by Bill Oehlke.
Antheraea halconensis female (verso), 145mm, Mt Canlaon, Negros, Philippines,
courtesy of Dave Marsden, id by Bill Oehlke.
Dirphia somniculosa, El Dorado, Santa Marta Mountains, Guarjira, Colombia,
February 19, 2014, courtesy/copyright of Janet Zinn;
tentative id by Bill Oehlke.
Richard Wasson sends the following image from his rearings.
Calosaturnia mendocina third instar,
courtesy of Richard Wasson.
Jim Tuttle has sent me images of first, second, fourth and an additional fifth instar of Attacus wardi, and Jim confirms privet as a suitable host.
Jim reports the natural hosts are Croton habrophylus (Euphorbiaceae) and Litsea glutinosa (Lauraceae).
Attacus wardi first instar on privet, Australia,
courtesy of Jim Tuttle.
Attacus wardi second instar on privet, Australia,
courtesy of Jim Tuttle.
Attacus wardi fourth instar on privet, Australia,
courtesy of Jim Tuttle.
Attacus wardi fifth instar on privet, Australia,
courtesy of Jim Tuttle.
Many thanks to Alex Baranowski who has sent second instar images of both Rothschildia lebeau forbesi and Eupackardia calleta. It is the first time the second instars of forbesi are depicted on WLSS.
Rothschildia lebeau forbesi second instar on privet, Texas stock,
courtesy of Alex Baranowski, April 21, 2014.
Eupackardia calleta fresh molt into second instar, Texas stock,
courtesy of Alex Baranowski.
Eupackardia calleta second instar, Texas stock,
courtesy of Alex Baranowski.
Eupackardia calleta second instar, Texas stock,
courtesy of Alex Baranowski.
Greg Bingaman has sent me beautiful images of hybrids which I have posted via links in the hybrid file:
Graellsia isabellae male x Actias sinensis female: male and larva.
Actias sinensis male x Graellsia isabellae female: male and larva.
Graellsia luna male x Actias artemis aliena female: male and larva.
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Jurgen Vanhoudt has completed the series of Brahmaea japonica larval images with the following two images:
Brahmaea japonica fifth instar on Ligustrum, Japan,
courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Brahmaea japonica prepupal fifth instar on Ligustrum, Japan,
courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Syssphinx heiligbrodti hatchling on Robinia,
courtesy of Jurgen VanHoudt.
Saturnia pavoniella hatchlings on Crataegus,
Czech Republic, courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Acanthobrahmaea europaea first instar on Ligustrum,
Italy, courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
I have updated the Saturnia pyretorum page with third and fifth instar images from Taiwan; and the Adetomeris erythrops page has been updated with images submitted earlier.
Most recently Jurgen has sent images of instars 3-5 to complete the larval sequence for Rhodinia grigauti.
Rhodinia grigauti fifth instar on Crataegus, Vietnam,
courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt.
Kirby Wolfe writes, "Our Giant Silkmoths book is finally being delivered from Amazon.com in the U.S. In Europe it has been selling very well and is being translated into German. It is now no.2 of Insect & Spider books for Amazon Canada, and it hasn't even been released there yet. Here's the URL for the U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/The-Giant-Silkmoths-Mimicry-Camouflage/dp/1906506256/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332781819&sr=1-1
"I imagine many of your members would be interested in this book, which is large coffee table format with over 100 color photos of live saturniids, and is very reasonably priced. The reviews in Great Britain, where it has been available since early November, have been filled with superlatives."
I (Bill Oehlke) have read some commentary on the new book, and it has all been very good. Check it out!.
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Sphingidae Express
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Catocala Capers
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Please note: I reside in Canada at the following address and payment for Saturniidae livestock (eggs, cocoons, pupae) and/or sleeves must be sent to me only at this address:
Bill Oehlke
Box 476
155 Peardon Road
Montague, Prince Edward Island, C0A 1R0
Canada
Postage from USA to Canada is $1.15 (2014 rate) so please use that amount on your envelope with your payment.
If you are in US and order cocoons or pupae from me this fall or winter, you will probably see a New Jersey return address on the shipping box. Do not send payment to the New Jersey address; send it to name and address above please.
This website has been created and is maintained by Bill Oehlke without government or institutional financial assistance. All expenses, ie., text reference support material, webspace rental from Bizland and 1&1, computer repairs/replacements, backups systems, software for image adjustments (Adobe Photoshop; L-View), ftp software, anti-virus protection, scanner, etc. are my own. The one-time-life-time membership fee that is charged at the time of the registration covers most of those expenses.
I very much appreciate all the many images that have been sent to me, or of which I have been granted permission to copy and post from other websites. All images on this site remain the property of respective photographers.
If you would like to contribute to the maintenace of this website by sending a contribution to
Bill Oehlke
Box 476
155 Peardon Road
Montague, Prince Edward Island, C0A1R0
Canada
your donation would be much appreciated and would be used for
1) paying for webspace rental;
2) paying for computer maintenance and software upgrades;
3) purchases of additional text reference material (journals and books) in an effort to stay current with new species;
4) helping to pay my daughter's tuition (She has now completed her B.A. (two years ago) and B. Ed. (this spring) and is certified to teach)
and has been working full time as of October-November with contract until end of school term in June.
I also hope to expand the North American Catocala site as well as the Sphingidae of the Americas site, to worldwide sites, and that will require additional funds for reference materials, etc. Both of those site are linked from your WLSS homepage.
If you are mailing a check from USA, please use $1.15 postage (2014 rate). Donations can also be made through Paypal via the button below.
Donations are not required to maintain your standing as a WLSS member, nor do they gain you any preferencial treatment with regard to livestock and/or supplies (sleeves), compared to other WLSS members. All WLSS members get first crack at my annual offerings and get an approximate discount of 10% as compared to non-members.
I do usually ask donors if they have any special requests for information on WLSS, and I try to accomodate when appropriate or within my ability to do so.