Hi All,
There is an explanation for the sudden move of the WLSS to a new location at bottom of this page. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you have not sent me a seven letter password, please do so now so I can send access to username/password restricted location.
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I will be headed to the United States October 24 and will be away until evening of October 30.
I had a very nice visit with my parents and sisters and families in New Jersey and Massachusetts. The weather was great for travelling, fall foliage was in full array, Mom's cooking was great, and I was triumphant, again, at the pinochle table. Dad was grossed out when he dealt me five kings and then dealt three more to the kitty. It was the first time I have ever won a game with all eight kings. Even sweeter was the fact that it was a come from behind victory.
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Livestock available in Canada is limited now to only Antheraea polyphemus. Everything else is sold out here in Canada except for some black swallowtail chrysalids.
For U.S. and overseas shipping, the following species are still
available from U.S. shipping location at membership prices
(adjusted up due to devalued U.S. dollar)
listed below:
Actias luna, Automeris io, Callosamia promethea at $4.25 U.S./cocoon;
Antheraea polyphemus at $4.50;
Hyalophora cecropia and Hyalophora columbia at $6.25;
Eacles imperialis imperialis at $8.00/pupa;
Citheronia regalis at $16.00/pair.
Butterflies:
Papilio glaucus (Eastern Tiger Swallowtail) and
Papilio troilus
(Spicebush Swallowtail) at $4.25.
Eurytides marcellus (Zebra Swallowtail) and Papilio asterius
(Black Swallowtail)at $4.50.
Shipping and handling within U.S. is $8.00. It will be slightly higher for overseas shipping.
I am looking to purchase in bulk at wholesale prices healthy, good-sized, overwintering cocoons/pupae/chrysalids of any or all of the folllowing: Callosamia promethea, Callosamia angulifera, additional Hyalophora cecropia, Eacles imperialis, or any other North American Saturniidae or butterfly pupae. They can be shipped to a U.S. destination. Check the newsletter pages regularly as I will provide notices of any new items in the newsletters.
Those members from U.S. who earlier requested Hyalophora columbia will get them, but otherwise 180 H. columbia are already sold out. Always inquire first by email about availability as some other items are also in short supply.
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All Leps Barcode of Life
The All Leps Barcode of Life project is providing much data for
worldwide distributions of Saturniidae and Sphingidae species as well as
for species of other lepidopteran families. The project should also
greatly help with classification of specimens through DNA analysis.
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Larry Gall sent the followng message:
"REMINGTON SYMPOSIUM:
http://www.peabody.yale.edu/collections/ent/clr.jpg
"On Saturday 10 November 2007, the Peabody Museum of Natural History will be hosting a one day symposium celebrating the life and career of the late Charles Lee Remington. The symposium will take place in the Peabody Auditorium from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm, and will feature presentations by nine students and colleagues of Charles. For additional details and information on registering for the Symposium, refer to the flier posted at the link above."
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Chris Hanzlik has sent a series of images of spread specimens of Hemileuca electra clio, a subspecies not previously depicted in adult stage on WLSS.
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Andres Oscar Contreras of Pilar, Neembucu, Paraguay, has just sent me images of what I believe are a male, female and larva of Rothschildia hesperus lutea. The male and larva were not previously depicted on WLSS. I am hoping that Andres will be able to send many more images and much information from his area which remains very much under reported even in the best hard copy text references.
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Uwe Kauz has sent beautiful images of a male Paradirphia geneforti from Tumbaco, Pichincha, Ecuador. He has also sent an image of the female. Uwe reared this species successfully on oak, a "new" host for this species.
Uwe also sent images of Cirina forda from Rungwe Mountains in southwestern Tanzania, and reports oak as a larva host.
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Jean-Louis Albert has sent images (recto and verso, with data: dates and wingspans) of the following from Franceville, Gabon: Carnegia mirabilis male, Imbrasia epimethea female, Micragone agathylla male, Pseudobunnaea tyrrhena neglecta male.
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Ulf Drechsel has sent beautiful images of live Automeris oberthurii, Salta Province, Argentina.
It is the first time I have seen an image of a live specimen of this stunning moth.
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Steve Ife has sent beautiful images of a female Titaea tamerlan amazonensis as well as images of third, fourth and fifth instar larvae. He also sends images of, all from Ecuador.
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Luigi Racheli has sent images of a Cicia pelota male from Ecuador and a Cicia pelota female from French Guiana.
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Horst Kach has sent another great series of images from Ecuador: Automeris liberia female, Misahualli, Napo; Rothschildia orizaba equatorialis male and female, Lita, Esmeraldas; Caligula japonica male, e.p. (from Japan); Syssphinx montana male, e.p. (from Arizona); Dirphia subhorca male, Durango, Esmeraldas; Leucanella contempta male, female and fourth instar, Puerto Quito, Pichincha.
Based on Lemaire's description of Leucanella contempta contempta and the image of the female sent by Horst, I am pretty sure Horst's image is of a species/subspecies as yet undescribed.
Horst has also sent images of Automeris postalbida first-sixth instars, Mompiche, Esmeraldas and Titaea tamerlan amazonensis instars 1, 4 and 5, Misahualli, Napo.
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Reinhard Foerster has sent an image of what I believe is an Arsenura orbignyana larvae, probably from Misiones Province, Argentina.
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I have begun to create the "Leroy Simon Collection" which is now linked from the main page of the WLSS.
Fifteen species are linked as of November 12. I have hundreds more images to post and Leroy has indicated he will be sending another CD soon.
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I have also begun to create the "Weiwei Zhang Collection" which will feature image sof live Saturniidae from China. Weiwei has sent me a very interesting image of Actias chapae eggs, and Weiwei is offering those eggs for sale/trade. Additional eggs will probably become available over time. If you wish to be on Weiwei's mailing list, contact email via Weiwei Zhang.
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Sphingidae Express
Jim Tuttle has advised me that his new book The Hawk Moths of North America is going to be released sometime this year. There is a discount for advance sale purchases. Info can be had at Introductory Offer. There might still be time to order this book at the reduced rate!
I have received many Sphingidae images this summer and have been creating adult thumbnail as well as larval thumbnail checklists for many U.S. counties.
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Arctiidae Art
I am starting to see Pyrrharctia isabella larvae crossing the roads here in Montague. The ones I have seen so far (late September) have been relatively small, perhaps a result of our cloudy, cool, wet summer. I am seeing bigger ones now (October 6-7, about sam size as I have seen in past years).
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Catocala Capers
I have just completed and posted the thumbnail checklist for Massachusetts Catocala at http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/MassachusettsCatocala.htm I think flight season is just about over for this genus in Massachusetts, but I am hoping to get more data to improve accuracy of page and to eventually create county by county checklists. Please keep me in mind if you encounter any other Catocala species and please let others in your area know about the site so additional data and images can be entered. Thanks. I am very happy to post other images to the page and link the county by county checklists from the page.
Non-WLSS-member Detlef Wehram of Germany writes,
"First of all, my congrats for your Catocala site. Well done and a real treasure for information.
"Last week I stepped into your Catocala-site online-hunting around for some projects for the coming year, and I was wondering how many different species of these Underwings are on the walk in the States.
"I collect butterflies since the age of 10, sometimes more, sometimes less. I am 47 years old now and have been lucky to get a bigger lifetime-collection of European species from an old expert 10 years ago.
"So not much is missing from what flies in Germany. My main interest belongs to the Noctuidae and Arctiidae.
"Can you give me some help to come in contact with a North American collector who can help me with some eggs of any of the Catocala of your region or can you help me with some eggs by yourself?
"Populus, Salix and Oak are available here in Germany, and they become green at the same time. So I think it must be possible to breed them here, too."
Feel free to email Detlef.
If there is sufficient interest amongst WLSS members, I will set up a worldwide Catocala contacts page, with same type of format and conditions as per Coleoptera page below.
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Caterpillars Too!, a North American butterfly website:
I will also be relocating this website as it was on the webspace previously provided by Clive Pratt.
I hope to have all members notified of that change by early November.
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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.
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I periodically receive images of Saturniidae that I am unable to id.
I usually seek help from Stefan Naumann and/or Ulrich Paukstadt for Russian, eastern Asian and southeast Asian species. Thierry Bouyer helps a great deal with African species as does Rolfe Oberprieler and Rodolphe Rougerie. For South and Central America I usually call upon Kirby Wolfe, Bernhard Wenczel, Thibaud Decaens, Eurides Furtado and/or Carlos Mielke.
Occasionally these gentlemen and a few others are also stumped. So that I do not lose track of the images, I am going to create a section called "Undetermined Saturniidae" where the images and all data I have received with them will be posted. Hopefully, over the years, all will eventually be identified.
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Sudden Move: Explanation:
In late September I began receiving many messages that the access to
WLSS was down through Clive Pratt's webspace. Clive had offered
to provide free webspace for the site in exchange for advertising
his dried specimens on the site. His linked banner has appeared
on the homepage ever since.
"Your site alone is taking up 630MB of space.
"I did see that your site's URL is bizland. So I assumed that you had
moved it there and my space was no longer required.
"Especially since I have not heard from you at all for a very long
time. Get back to me."
I wrote back to Clive:
Clive,
I have been doing regular updates to the site on your space and that
is why the space utilized is up to 630MB.
I advertise the site on a Bizland page where I have my Sphingidae
site and my Catocala site, but the site is not accessed by my
membership on Bizland webspace. The majority of members, over 600
now, access the website on your webspace.
I have a back up site at 1 and 1 and have about 80 members accessing
the WLSS through user name and password on the 1 and 1 space. The
rest have been using the site on your space. New members are directed
to the 1 & 1 site, but your banner is there as well in appreciation
for use of webspace.
Your advertising banner and link to your website are still on the
WLSS homepage, front and center on both sites.
I would like to be able to access the space via WS_FTP so that I can
at least dismantle it and remove all the images and all files.
Several members wrote to me in the last couple of days and asked what
the problem was, and updates were working fine up til just a couple
of days ago. Now I know what to tell them. I would like to do so on
pages temporarily posted on insectcompany pages, probably for the
month of October. By then I will have everyone moved and notified and
will have recovered any files I need.
I will then move the entire membership to the 1 & 1 space via
username and password. Hopefully that will reduce your expenses.
Please advise.
Every month since October 2001 I have posted a monthly "mothly"
newsletter on the site. There are probably a few pictures and maybe
some files that are on your space, that I do not have saved
elsewhere. I would like to be able to recover them. Hopefully they
have not been deleted.
I would have advised you if I was no longer using your space.
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At any rate, I am now moving all members to the username password
site, and I too may have to pay for "airtime". I am in process of
checking my billing amount for my first six month contract with
1 & 1.
If there are substantial "air time/traffic fees", I am going to have
to do something to pay for my rental as well. I do
extensive uploads with all the new images and information I have been
receiving, and am upgrading the site in other ways with creation of
maps, provincial/department/state checklists for South and Central
American countries, and extensive links which greatly assist with
identifications.
I will honour my commitment of the one-time-life-time-membership fee
or gift membership without fee, but am considering asking for a
voluntary annual donation of $5.00/year to pay for my expenses.
I may someday (not now) be faced with a hard decision as membership
and the site continues to grow, and will either have to cut off
website access and simply provide a cd of the WLSS as it now stands
to all members who do not wish to pay an annual dues.
I think those who wish to pay a small annual renewal fee for
continued access to the site, which will continue to be upgraded
regularly, will provide me with enough money to cover additional
expenses should they occur.
I have just checked with Bizland and with 1 & 1, and my contract agreement
with them appears that there will not be additional airtime/storage
charges through them beyond basic annual fee.
I will also begin to advertise membership fee (for new members only, i.e.,
people who register in November 2007 or later)
as one that requires an initial fee of $40.00/year with annual dues
of $5.00/year to cover airtime.
Thanks for your patience, continuous support and understanding.
I may have to alter most of the files so only a couple of images come
up with each species file with links to the other pics. That way those
who seek foodplant info will not have the down load time of ten to
fifteen images. This will not be done right away, but will probably
gradually be phased in so that as membership continues to grow and
more and more images become available, people can access a species
file for foodplant/range/identification/flight season data without
incurring the download time of a great many images.
I appreciate Clive's support over the years with the webspace he has
been providing, but fully understand that he should not be paying for
our "airtime".
It is a surprise to me, however, that he has such expense, as my
current airtime and storage contracts with Bizland and 1 & 1
are at much lower rates, between $60.00 and $80.00
respectively each year.
Current membership is now over 600, with about 400 of those members
active. Gift memberships were given/have been given/ and will
continue to be given to members who provide extensive data/images.
They help greatly to make the site what it is.
My highspeed internet charges are around $500.00/year, and I would
not try to operate without highspeed service.
When I first started the WLSS, membership was one-time-life-time fee
of $20.00. Approximately 100 members registered at that rate.
Please let me know your thoughts/suggestions. I am sure my expenses
will increase over the years, and it does not seem fair to
pass burden of covering expenses soley to new members as
all members receive benefits of continuous upgrades to site.
I usually work on it 3-8 hours daily, nightly in summer months.
I would never expect the photographers (regular submitters) or
extensive data submitters or id helpers to pay an additonal fee.
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