"Here we have over 50 species. Most of which I have collected at light or sugaring. When not using these methods, I never see one."

Harry has sent me much data and many excellent recto and verso images, all of which are being posted to this Harry King, Michigan Catocala Collection.

Harry writes, October 6, 2008, "You notice these specimens are all taken at a Bait Trail. I have collected at lights, bait trail, and bait traps and tapping trees.

"By far I find bait trails the most fun and rewarding. Tapping trees is the next most rewarding way.

"Lights and traps have their place, but there is nothing like a bait trail for real hands on. You have to mix the bait and apply it to the trees and collect with just a jar, having to stalk the prey with a flash light, and the material is always some of the best condition.

"On a good night when there are 4-5 at every spot busily flying around alighting at the bait, I find it most exciting.

"Several years I collected larvae and that was a most successful way of getting perfect material as well."

At the bottom of this page I have added links to the Michigan Sphingidae images that Harry has sent.

Harry Dale King, 2008; ready, willing and able!

Catocala minuta, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
July 7, 1996, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala grynea, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
July 12, 1996, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala ultronia, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
July 7, 1994, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala dejecta female, lights, Shaw Lake, Barry County,
July 18, 1986, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala concumbens, Mason, Ingham County,
July 15, 1994, 65mm, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala meskei, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
July 10, 1996, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala parta, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
July 18, 1994, 81mm, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala subnata, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
September 1, 1996, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala piatrix, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
August 14, 1996, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala ilia, Mason, Ingham County,
July 11, 1994, 80mm, courtesy of Harry King.
July 17, 1994, form "normani", female, 82mm, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala nebulosa, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
August 14, 1996, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala innubens, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
July 9, 1994, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala unijuga, bait trail, Mason, Ingham County,
July 14, 1994, courtesy of Harry King.

Catocala Bait Trap

Collecting Catocala illecta Larvae

Harry adds, "Looking back over the years, in my best year collecting Catocala at South Jefferson, Mason, Ingham County, Michigan, I collected 36 species and over 500 specimens.

"I run a bait trail at the house, a small trail in the gravel pit behind the house and a 40 tree trail in the Ingham County Park woods a mile away. "It was all done with bait mixed up on the spot and nothing but a jar and light on the trail.

"The only collecting equipment needed to collect moths off a bait trail is depicted below."

Bait trail equipment, courtesy of Harry D. King.

I had been taught during 1975-1979 the great techniques of baiting for moths by my best collecting friend and mentor Mo Nielsen. After a number of years collecting Arctic species in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I found myself in an unfamiliar position one year. I didn’t have adequate transportation or the time to take away from work on any kind of extended trip. I knew my collecting would have to be near home that year, but I did not consider myself to be close to any real good collecting sites.

One night I was reading “The day has been hot and sultry. The sun has set behind great banks of clouds which are piling up on the northwestern horizon.” Who among us doesn’t get excited every time they pick up W J Holland’s book and read “Sugaring for Moths”? Maybe I could do some baiting this year; there must be some place close where I could get underwings.

Now when I was baiting before, I always mixed up my bait in just such a way, you know, each has his own recipe that works better for him than any thing else. Oh! and of course it must have time to ferment. Well, if I was going to bait this year, I didn’t have time for all that. What did Holland tell us about the mixture? Oh! Yes several pounds of cheep sugar, stale beer and maybe some rum; Oh! and he mixed it up right on the spot. No waiting for fermentation. I would do a little better, I didn’t have rum but I would add banana and some molasses. That was it though. So each night I would mix the bait up fresh using brown sugar, beer, bananas and molasses. Didn’t seem like much of a recipe but if some thing so simple worked for Holland why not me.

To re-familiarize myself with the species I took to reading Sargent’s book, Legion of Night, The Underwing Moths, once again. I was still contemplating where to run a bait trail at this point. Sargent kept referring to the records for the moths in his book as having been taking in his back yard at Leverett, Massachusetts. He described the setting not so different from most living in a small town and then he baited those dozen or so trees in the yard.

I was living in Mason, Michigan at the time, down on South Jefferson inside the city limits. The house set back in from the main road and the driveway was what used to be the old in urban-way right-of-way and bordered the property. I went to check it out. Along the old right-of-way were a half dozen or so ash trees and several wild cherry I could bait. There were maple trees in the front and side yards as well as a couple of pine. The house backed up to the edge of the gravel pit and I could bait 4-5 more trees there. If Sargent could do it then I---- well you know the saying.

I was contemplating what I might see at bait by trying to recall what species of trees were in my area. Along the edge of the gravel pit there were willows and poplars. The trees along the drive were ash with some wild cherry, maples and pine in the front and side yards and the immediate area had lots of walnut, maple, mulberry and basswood. There were sycamores and oaks down by the creek on the other side of the road, along with a lot of box alder. Out by the highway over-pass the city had planted Honey locust although that was ½ mile away. Didn’t really seem that great to me, Mo and I had always tried to do most of our baiting in oak-hickory woods, but it would be interesting to see what the bait might pull in. I might add that the summer was hot and sunny most all of July until the middle of August. Then quite typical Michigan weather, for that time of year, set in until the end of the collecting season.

Below is a list of species I collected at bait that summer season, at my home in Mason, Michigan, using a simple mixture for bait on trees in my own back yard.

innubens 20
relicta 1
piatrix 16
habilis 1
residua 1
retecta 2
palaeogama 1
nebulosa 1
subnata 2
neogama 38
ilia 9
cerogama 12
parta 23
meski 12
cara 31
concumbens 5
grynea 31
ultronia 53
crataegi 7
mira 13
amatrix 18 (includes “selecta”)
(other years unijuga, similis, minuta)

Each year that I baited in my yard I collected at least 1 C. nebulosa and 1 C. subnata.

One year my son and I took a male Black Witch at bait right in my front yard.

Eumorpha pandorus, taken at lights, Saginaw Highway, Lansing, Eaton County, Michigan,
September 9, 1999, courtesy of Harry D. King.

Sphecodina abbottii, taken at wild phlox, Mason, Ingham County, Michigan,
corner of Eden Road and Barnes Road, May 30, 1999, courtesy of Harry D. King.

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