Lindsay Oehlke wearing Hyalophora columbia.
Lindsay Oehlke wearing Actias luna.
Hi All,
Hope you had a good summer. Perhaps you have some cocoons for sale or trade?
I am in the process right now of contacting regular suppliers and potential suppliers of US cocoons and pupae that I might purchase at wholesale prices for inspection and redistribution to WLSS members. If you have quality, diapausing cocoons (overwintering stock) that you would be willing to sell me at wholesale prices, please let me know what you have and how many of each species.
My arrangement for such purchases is that you bulk ship to one New Jersey address that I will provide. I open and inspect the livestock while I am in New Jersey, October 21-29, 2014, and I send you payment when I return to PEI in early November. I am interested in any species of good quality at reasonable prices. What I don’t ship from New Jersey in October, I leave with my US shipping partner in Maine on the way back to PEI. He will ship during November-December 15 and then resume shipping in January and will continue until supplies run out.
I do expect to have reasonable numbers of most species that are usually offered. Prices are listed below:
Actias luna $5.00/cocoon; yes
Agapema homogena $11.00/cocoon; seldom offered; yes
Antheraea polyphemus $5.50/cocoon; yes
Automeris io; expected but no confirmation yet, 5.50
Callosamia angulifera; maybe, but no confirmation of availability yet, doubtful
Callosamia promethea; 5.25; yes
Citheronia regalis expected at 16.50/pair; I may not be able to get many regalis this year as two regular suppliers have reported they do not have them;
only 12 pairs available so far
Eacles imperialis; very doubtful, maybe some from Alabama later
Hyalophora columbia columbia $6.75; limited quantities; yes
Haylophora columbia gloveri $6.75; yes
Hyalophora cecropia $6.75; yes
Samia cynthia, expected but no confirmation yet, 5.50
Butterflies:
Pterourus glaucus, Eastern tiger Swallowtail; expected but no confirmation yet, probably 5.50
Pterourus troilus, Spicebush swallowtail; expected but no confirmation yet, 5.25
Papilio polyxenes asterius, Eastern Black Swallowtail; ; expected, 5.50; at least thirty, maybe more
Shipping and handling on all orders within US will be $9.00 whether you order a single item or 100 items, etc.
There will be a slight increase in prices for orders received after October 27, as I will have to pay my shipping partner to ship those.
If you wish to place an order, do not send payment yet, but please do send right away the following information in an email back to me:
1) Your complete shipping address
2) Species and quantities of each that you would like to receive
3) Your method of payment personal check (preferred) or paypal. With Paypal there is a paypal fee of 4% that would be added to your total price,
and that can increase the price rather dramatically if you place a large order. I can also accept international postal money orders or bank international
money orders in US funds, but please note they have to be international money orders.
Do not send any payment until I have confirmed your order. Hopefully I will be able to do that by October 9, and I can let you know the total amount due at that time. That should give you time to get your payment to me before I head out to New Jersey or while I am there. My wife can let me know what arrives on PEI while I am in New Jersey. Please note you will be sending the payment, using $1.15 postage on your envelope to
Bill Oehlke
Box 476
Montague, PE, C0A 1R0
Canada
Check with post office before you mail the payment to make sure you have correct postage. It might even be more than $1.15 by time you are ready to send it.
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As of September 18 all my luna, columbia, cecropia, rubicunda and modesta have spun up. I still have Antheraea polyphemus larvae from late June early July eggs still feeding. I have harvested over 200 polyphemus cocoons and have about thrity more final instar larvae still feeding as of September 23. We have had some light frosts, but I feel the larvae in the large remay sleeves probably do not experience the frost inside the sleeves. Hopefully all larvae will have spun cocoons by end of this week (9/26). I hope to begin shipping cocoons in Canada in the coming week.
I hope to have a pricelist for all species available within Canada posted by September 16, but will begin taking tentative requests from Canadian WLSS members now.
I expect prices to be within the following ranges:
Actias luna: $5.15/cocoon; $5.00 each if you order 10-25 cocoons; $4.75 if you order 50-99 cocoons; $4.50 if you order 100 or more cocoons.
Antheraea polyphemus: $5.50 each (tentative price, depends upon actual harvest).
Dryocampa rubicunda: $3.50 each very small numbers available on first come first served basis.
Pachysphinx modesta (Sphingidae): $4.50 each; $4.25 each if you order ten or more.
Hyalophora cecropia: $6.75 each (might have to be rationed, depends on demand and how many successfully pupate inside cocoons.
Hyalophora colombia colombia: $6.75 each (might have to be rationed, depends on demand and how many successfully pupate inside cocoons.
As of September 28 all rubicunda have been sold. I still have many luna, a good number of polyphemus and smaller numbers of cecropia, columbia and modesta.
I will not begin to advertize Canadian stock to non-WLSS members in Canada until Canadian WLSS members have first had a chance to place their orders. Shipping and handling costs to Canadian destinations will depend upon destination address and size and weight of order. There will be 5% GST charged on all Canadian orders. I am happy to accept personal checks for Canadian orders. I can also accept Paypal, but with Paypal there would be an additional 4% Paypal transaction fee as that is what Paypal deducts from the amount I receive from you for their services.
I hope to have prices posted with a complete list of species available for shipping within US by October 1. Prices may be different for US customers as stock to US destinations would be coming from breeders in US. There are usually many additional species available within US, but I won't likely know exactly what will be available until some time in late September-early October as larvae are often still feeding up until those late dates.
Overseas WLSS members will be able to order stock from either Canada or US with payment in advance by Paypal to oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
Overseas customers are to understand that shipping costs depend upon destination and size of package, and I cannot guarantee you will receive your package. All risks with potential customs problems are assumed by customers. I have not had problems with some countries (no problems yet with stock to United Kingdom/England), but there have been issues with packages sent to Germany, Italy, France, Spain.
If you send payment, I can only guarantee that cocoons will be shipped. I cannot guarantee you will receive them, so purcahses are at buyer's risk. There would be no refund for refused entry at your customs. Sorry.
In early October I hope to have pricelists for distribution within the United States.
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My oldest daughter, Lindsay, has begun marketing ear rings featuring laminated moth wings, mostly of males hatched from my breeding stock or from wild males that have flown in to my caged female Saturniidae or Sphingidae. She is pictured below wearing Hyalophora columbia and Actia luna.
Lindsay Oehlke wearing Hyalophora columbia.
Lindsay Oehlke wearing Actias luna.
Lindsay also has some Costa Rican butterflies on display from the butterfly house at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company. Wings are carefully separated from deceased specimens, laminated and cut out. Holes are punched-out in appropriate places in the laminating film so the wings are free swinging from their hooks. Single or double wings can be purchased for each ear in a set.
The jewellry is durable, quite eyecatching and has proven very popular at a recent showing in Charlottetown, PEI, Canada. Contact Lindsay directly via Lindsay Oehlke.
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For the first time on WLSS a live Paradaemonia winbrechlini is depicted.
For the first time on WLSS a live Gynanisa thiryi is displayed.
Gynanisa thiryi male, Sakania, Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
September 21, 2014, courtesy of Nigel Voaden, id by Bill Oehlke.
This moth is very similar to G. ata. G. thiryi is quite grey and the outer margin of each wing is very dentate. Note the relatively wide median field, and the strong outward turn of the forewing pm line and subterminal lines as they meet the inner margin. On the hindwing those same lines turn strongly downward as they meet the inner margin. I find these characters in no other Gynanisa from the area. Bill Oehlke
Many thanks to Nigel Voaden for sending the image and data. Previous to receipt of image I had ata, maja and nigra listed for Zambia, and felt it was most likely going to be nigra, as Philippe Darge had recently published nigra in surrounding areas.
I quickly ruled out maja because of the very irregular/scalloped outer margins. I also noticed some of the features mentioned above did not fit either nigra or ata so began looking for other possibilities, and found the excellent match with thiryi.
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Jurgen Vanhoudt has recently sent me a number of very nice images. Among them is this image of a Periphoba species.
Periphoba arcaei male, on Prunus serotina,
Oaxaca, Mexico, courtesy of Jurgen Vanhoudt
In 2006 C. Mielke and E. Furtado described four new species from north eastern Brazil.
In 2010 Brechlin & Meister described six new species and removed Periphoba rosacea from synonymity with P. arcaei.
Many species are extremely similar in appearance, and possibly DNA barcoding may be needed to do accurate id work, even when specimens are in hand. None-the-less, I am creating this chart and the other charts, linked from the bottom of this page, to try to help myself and others do id work when all that is available is a digital photo.
At least two species are very distinct: P. albata (white ground colour, no lines) and P. unicolor (yellow ground colour, no lines).
Two additional species may not be too difficult to sort out: P. rosaceae (quite pink; removed from synonymity with arcaei; Oaxaca and Chiapas) and P. hidalgensis: (forewings showing strong contrast in patterns/colours; Hidalgo and possibly Guerrero.
It will be very difficult, I feel, to conclusively sort of P. arcaei and the recently described P. rudloffi; Costa Rica to Colombia. Rudloffi has a brighter overall appearance and a darker, thicker hindwing median band.
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Jurgen also sends a new foodplant for Loepa oberthuri as well as images of instars 2-5, linked from the oberthuri file.
For the first time on WLSS a fully spread female Micragone martinae is displayed.
Micragone martinae female, Mbalmayo, Cameroon,
July 2014, courtesy of Frederik Goussey.
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.
