Hi All,
I had a nice visit to New Jersey October 21 - October 29. I visited and overnighted at my youngest sister's house in Massachusetts on the way down, and then visited and overnighted with both my parents in Pottersville, New Jersey, and my oldest sister and her husband in Perryville, New Jersey.
The annual Pinochle Tournament ended in a three way tie, as my mother, father and I all had the same number of victories.
I opened boxes of cocoons and pupae from a dozen different breeders while in New Jersey and shipped out over eighty orders from that state. The weather was good the whole time I was there and it was great to see everyone and see some of the old stomping grounds.
I also had a good trip home and overnighted in Maine at the home of my US shipping partner, Philip Roy. We are both big Patriots fans so the stay was quite nice and a welcome respite from two days of eight hours driving each day.
Philip has already started shipping orders, Monday, November 4, and will continue to receive more cocoons and pupae until stocks are depleted. All regalis, imperialis, sinaloensis, cincta, homogena, cynthia and asterius are now sold out. There is possibility I may be able to get more cynthia, and I still have luna, polyphemus, io, promethea, cecropia, gloveri and butterflies Papilio glaucus and Papilio troilus.
Rothschildia lebeau forbesi cocoons will be harvested soon in Texas and will be shipped to those who have already requested them. There should be lots to go around, based on preliminary reports, and overwintering Eupackardia calleta cocoons are also expected in good numbers. In Texas there are usually two broods of calleta, but Jeff has found I still have some ios and Sphinx poecila for Canadian distribution.
Here is the WLSS Members' Pricelist for WLSS members, updated for November, 2013.
I have made purchases from regular US suppliers in early to mid October. If you have quality cocoons available at wholesale prices, please send me an email.
My supply of luna, io, promethea, cynthia this year is sufficient for me to lower prices somewhat, and those who ordered cocoons of those species and sent money early (before I became aware of the abundant supply) will receive a slight discount on prices in the form of an extra cocoon or five, depending upon size of order. I also have potential to procure additional cecropia cocoons, but am going to wait until the dust settles before doing so.
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I recently received images from Mexico via non-member Moralea Milne. Although these are rather common species, images are quite nice, and it is nice to receive unrequested submissions from non-members, especially from Mexico.
Rothschildia cincta guerreronis male, Mt. Albans, Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico,
summer 2013, courtesy of Moralea Milne, id by Bill Oehlke
Eacles imperialis decoris male, Mt. Albans, Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico,
summer 2013, courtesy of Moralea Milne, id by Bill Oehlke
Robert Vuattoux sends this unusual pairing of an Epiphora bauhiniae male (Namibia) with an Epiphora mythimnia female (Tanzania). We hope Robert has success with the offspring.
Ryan Saint Laurent has recently visited the Smithsonian and was given permission to photograph many type specimens in the collection. He was also granted permission to pass them on to me so they could be posted on WLSS. For the first time Citheronia johnsoni is depicted.
Ryan has also sent some images of types of the rarer species and I will work them into the files in the next few days.
Citheronia johnsoni, male, Santa Cruz do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
courtesy of "The Smithsonian Insect Collection (USNM) courtesy of Ryan St. Laurent".
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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
Larry Gall writes, "Hi folks, now that the adult Catocala season is in full swing, I'm hoping some or all of you can offer a bit of collecting assistance. Before making that request, I wanted to also let you know (a number of you already know) that I asked Bob Borth and Hugo Kons to join me/Dave this spring as authors on the MONA Fascicle. We are working on an end-game plan, which will incorporate a lot of new information that Hugo and Bob have been generating, with submission of a manuscript in November 2014, aiming for a projected late 2015 publication date.
"Summer 2013 collecting -- this summer I would like to receive
(1) as many specimens of male Catocala neogama as you wish to collect, from anywhere, and
(2) as many batches of eggs from as many female Catocala neogama as you care to put up and babysit for egg laying, from anywhere.
The reason is that two species appear to be going under the name Catocala neogama throughout most of its geographic range, notably east of the Great
Plains where we have all largely taken Catocala neogama for granted as a single entity. We'd like to confirm the likelihood of two species from
rearings from known females next spring, and also want to redo the data that will be used to generate these species' MONA distribution maps based on male
records (the males are easier to separate).
"Also, the same request holds for specimens/eggs from Catocala praeclara and Catocala alabamae from anywhere north of the Gulf Coast, so that we can nail down the respective distributions of these with better precision. Specimens of any sex are fine.
"The specimens sent can be in any state of preparation, pinned or not, although field pinned specimens may be the fastest to work with at this end. I'm happy to provide hints on obtaining eggs, etc., and assist anyone with shipping expenses. As always, I am also happy to determine any/all Catocala you might wish to have determined. Please feel free to forward this email to any/all of your collecting friends, and happy hunting!"
Lawrence F. Gall, Ph.D.
Head, Computer Systems Office
Informatics Manager, Entomology
Executive Editor, Peabody Publications
Lepidoptera Section Editor, Zootaxa
Peabody Museum of Natural History
P.O. Box 208118, Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520-8118 USA
http://www.peabody.yale.edu
email: lawrence.gall@yale.edu
phone: 1-203-432-9892
FAX: 1-203-432-9816
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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 $1.10 (2013 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.
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).
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 $1.10 postage. 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 material on WLSS, and I try to accomodate when appropriate or within my ability to do so.