September 16 to October 15

Hi All,

I may have some ios and promethea for Canadian distribution if all goes well. I have had a good harvest of io cocoons (about 170 of them). I am interested in purchasing quality livestock from other Canadian breeders at wholesale prices for redistribution.

Shipping of US cocoons to US destinations will begin in late October while I am visiting my parents and sisters in New Jersey.

Here is the WLSS Members' Pricelist for WLSS members for October, 2013.

I will be making purchase from regular US suppliers in early to mid October. If you have quality cocoons available at wholesale prices, please send me an email.

I am also interested in making purchases of high quality livestock from Canadian members. Thus far I have harvested Anisota virginiensis, Dryocampa rubicunda pupae, and Sphingidae pupae of Pachysphinx modesta and Sphinx poecila. I have begun (mid August) to harvest, luna, polyphemus, cecropia and columbia cocoons. As of September 2 all luna and polyphemus caterpillars have spun, and just about all cecropia and columbia larvae have spun, just a couple more still feeding. A. io larvae as of September 4, seem to need about a week or two more good weather to reach full size. Just about all C. promethea have spun. As of September 17 about half of the ios have spun and rest should spin within the week (two still feeding as of October 2).

Some Rosy Maples recently (early September) emerged indoors. It appears too late in season for another brood to get through. I have seen this before with Rosy Maples here on PEI. Perhaps the warmer temperatures inside the sleeves hastens development and throws them off. Perhaps this also happens in the wild.

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Bjorn Fjellstad has granted me permission to use his images of Australian Saturniidae. I will be working through them shortly. Many images are of recently (2010) described species. I hope to have the images up by October 14. Most instars will be posted on the respective species files.

Syntherata escarlata fifth instar, Paluma, Queensland, Australia,
courtesy of Bjorn Fjellstad.

Opodiphthera astrophela fifth instar, Lamington, Queensland, Australia,
courtesy of Bjorn Fjellstad.

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For the first time on WLSS a live male Automeris phrynon is depicted, courtesy of Viktor Sinyaev.

Automeris phrynon male, Honduras,
courtesy of Viktor Sinyaev.

This specimen lacks the dark scaling in the entire basal area and lower third of the forewing median area as shown in the Dan Janzen image of the male on the phrynon page. Perhaps those are "grease" stains on the Dan Janzen image; perhaps the male is quite variable.

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Jaroslav Sterba sends the following image of a mature Samia tetrica larva from Fraser's Hill, Malaysia. It is the first time the larva of this species has been displayed on WLSS. Jaroslav also reports foodplants: Acer negundo: Box elder, boxelder maple, maple ash, black ash, etc.; and Ligustrum: Privet.

Samia tetrica fifth instar on Acer negundo, Frasers Hill, Malaysia,
courtesy of Jaroslav Sterba.

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When Fernando Cesar Penco originially sent the following image, I thought it represented a range entension of Gamelia abasia into northwestern Argentina. It has been assigned the new name, Gamelia argentina, Brechlin, Meister & Penco, 2012.

Gamelia argentina, male, Salta, Argentina,
courtesy of Fernando Cesar Penco.

The female is also depicted on the G. argentina page.

I began processing the new designations of Gamelia species put forward by Brechlin & Meister, 2012, and came across images of an unknown Gamelia (male, female and two larval forms) from Satipo, Junin, Peru, on the CD Bernhard Wenczel sent me many years ago. I believe they are of the recently described Gamelia nadezhdae, but I am not certain.

Gamelia nadezhdae male, Satipo, Junin, Peru,
courtesy of Bernhard Wenczel and Victor Suter,
tenetative id by Bill Oehlke.

Gamelia nadezhdae female, Satipo, Junin, Peru,
courtesy of Bernhard Wenczel and Victor Suter,
tenetative id by Bill Oehlke.

The larvae from Satipo have been posted to the nadezhdae page.

Many new Gamelia species were described in 2012. I will continue to process them and see if I can find images amonst the many sent to me by Eric van schayck, Bernhard and Victor, Thibaud Decaens, Horst Kach and others.

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Pia Oberg has recently sent images from her travels in South America. I am pretty sure the following moth is a female of recently described Periga galbiparaculata from Ecuador.

Periga galbiparaculata female, Wild Sumaco Lodge, Napo, Ecuador,
February, 2011, courtesy of Pia Oberg.

Pia also sends the following image of a female Periga species from Bahia, Brazil.

Periga spatulata female, Serra Bonita Forest Reserve, Bahia, Brazil,
October 20, 2012, 1400m, id by Vitor Becker, courtesy of Pia Oberg,
possibly spatulata, incidiosa or fuscbahiana (Bill Oehlke).

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Rothschildia lebeau forbesi female, southern Texas,
September 16, 2013, courtesy of Jeff Keverline.

I expect there will be forbesi eggs available soon, and hopefully there will be forbesi cocoons to add to the list, but forbesis cocons williely not be available until November. I hope to have pricelists posted by early October and will begin taking orders then. In the USA larvae of many species are still feeding. Eupackardia calleta cocoons, expected to emerge this fall, are available at this time.

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Saturnia (Rinaca) zuleika cocoons, Yunnan, China,
September 2013, courtesy of Alan Marson.

Alan writes, "Caligula zuleika are perforated like C. thibeta, etc., – but they are very tough cocoons. I am told that both species overwinter in this stage."

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Jean Yves-Pascal has provided the following image with details about the Montreal Insect Show.

Visit Entomopro website: Montreal Insect Show 2013 for additional details.

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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.

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).

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.