May 4, 2001: I took eight Antheraea polyphemus cocoons out of storage. H.e., S.c., Expect polyphemus May 28 (cool spring here) Cocoons are on a couple of layers of paper towels in hardware cloth (3/8 inch mesh) rectangular cages on living room floor. Indoor temp will probably stay around mid 60's F. unless it warms outside. This could delay the polyphemus until early June. Other stock will start coming out of ziploc/refrigerator storage (38 F) over the next several weeks.
May 11, 2001: I took five Actias luna, four Antheraea polyphemus and four Hyalophora cecropia cocoons out of storage today, expecting eclosions of luna and cecropia around May 30 and polyphemus around June 5. Lunas and polyphemus took considerably longer than I expected (cool weather) with first luna eclosing second week in June. We had a shot of warm weather and I saw a couple of red admirals on the wing earlier in the week. One was ovipositing on my nettle shoots that are only a few centimeters high.
There are a few pin cherry trees with buds opened now (May 12) and little leaves about 3/8 inch long. An apple tree also has some small leaves on it.
May 18, 2001: I took eleven Antheraea polyphemus, twenty-one Actias luna, nine Hyalophora columbia and sixteen Hyalophora cecropia out of storage today. The past week has been cool and cloudy with some rain, daytime highs in mid fifties F. Today was nice with sunshine and low 60's F.
May 25, 2001: I took remaining six polyphemus out of storage as well as seven columbia (three left), ten luna (three left), twelve cecropia (three left).
June 1, 2001: I took remaining cecropia, luna and columbia out of cold storage as well as black swallowtail pupae. Trees have leafed out but it is cold (mid 40-50 F) and rainy again and night light on roof top is bringing in June bugs and that's about all. I expect native flights to begin near end of this week if it warms and polyphemus out of storage May 4 to begin emerging soon.
June 15, 2001: I had polyphemus mating last night and also tonight and will start shipping eggs on Monday. First batch of luna cocoons have hatched but all were males. I took a female luna at my mv light tonight and also took what looks like a natural hybrid columbia x cecropia at light by school. First batch of cecropia cocoons should hatch any day now.
June 21, 2001: This week I have taken several female columbia at lights and have had five cage matings with wild males flying in between 4:30 and 5:15 am. Two large female cecropia paired on June 20 with wild males coming in between 10:30 and 11:00 pm. Luna pairings have taken place after midnight and I continue to get many polyphemus pairings. Many Sphingidae species are flying now, but the only female I have taken is P. modesta. Many egg shipments have gone out Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Cecropias (mailings) will start going out Friday and Monday.
Black swallowtail pupae began eclosing on June 20, 19 days out of storage.
July 2, 2001: I have taken female cecropia, polyphemus, luna and columbia at lights since last writing and took female polyphemus and cecropia last night (July 1) also P. modesta, S. cerisyi, S. kalmiae, C. undulosa. I obtained many matings of cecropia and polyphemus and luna and have sent out all egg orders except for two cecropia egg orders and a few luna orders. Cecropia egg orders will go out on July 3. Remaining luna orders will go out from second brood stocks. The last cecropia mating I had was with a very dark, almost melanic male. I will spread him and scan the image soon.
I have luna, polyphemus and columbia larvae feeding as well as sphingids P. excaecatus and P. modesta.
My son and one of his friends also caught me several female Papilio canadensis and they are ovipositing in a sleeve on pin cherry. White admirals are now flying and I captured two females and put one in a sleeve over birch and the other in a sleeve over poplar.
Red admiral larvae are stripping my nettles and I have actually been netting females and destroying them and also destroying larvae because of the great numbers. They (caterpillars) would literally starve to death and probably kill many of the nettles if I were not eliminating many of them.
July 7, 2001: I took a fresh female Darapsa pholus (sphingid) at lights last night. Cecropia larvae have started hatching. Sleeved out more luna, polyphemus, cecropia and columbia yesterday.
Captured a couple more white admirals and put them in sleeves hoping for eggs. There are a good jumber of eggs in the Papilio canadensis sleeve and some small larvae. Captured a few fritillaries for Jacolene vander Vyver. Question marks (will try to sleeve a female over nettle stalks) are flying and I think I have salvaged my nettles but the red admirals just keep coming. White admirals, red admirals and question marks are all feeding at sap on willow bush. I think the tree/bush is dying and there are some fungal growths which may be producing the "food/sap". At any rate the yard has a healthy supply of live butterlies and the butterfly bushes which I covered with leaves for the winter should start producing some blooms in two to three more weeks.
Sun is shining this am so I am going to rushoff to tie up some bird netting sleeves to pull over
top of my large sleeves housing polyphemus caterpillars. The birds have not been bothering my sleeves of other species, but last year they tore through my remay sleeves (which I am still using) to get at the mature polyphemus caterpillars. Also have Sphinx poecila larvae feeding indoors on cut blueberry foliage.
If all goes well, I am off to the beach this afternoon!
July 13, 2001: I never made it to the beach as it clouded over and got cool and windy. Past week has been relatively cool and wet and not much has been flying but I did take a female Paonias excaecatus and a female polyphemus at lights last night (July 12). Earlier in the week I took what I believe is a female pine sphinx and she has oviposited. I had not previously recorded them from this area, but will have to confirm when larvae hatch and grow. There are lots of Smerinthus jamaicensis flying this year but few S. cerisyi. All larvae seem to be progressing nicely and I will be very busy sleeving out more larvae today.
Early lunas from New Jersey are almost ready to spin, within a week to ten days so I will likely have fresh eggs in early August. There will be some price increases to go into effect September 1, 2001 so get your orders in early. Current prices will be honoured for all orders currently in or received before September 1, 2001.
I am also going to upgrade egg prices to reflect requests for smaller numbers and to take some of the pressure off myself. It gets very hectic here in June with school still ongoing and trying to get moth matings or take females at lights and ship eggs.
Hope you are all having a good season as most of you are rearing something!
July 20, 2001: Got to the beach on the 15th and now am off for three days to Fredericton, New Brunswick, as my son and daughter are playing in a soccer tournament.
Some of the early lunas have spun up so I will be shipping cocoons starting early in the coming week. My father's luna cocoons are emerging so he will be shipping out remaining egg orders for that species.
Pine sphinx larvae hatched and are sleeved out.
All larvae in sleeves seem to be doing well.
Took, at lights, a male cecropia on 15th and a male polyphemus on 16th. I am surprised that they are still flying so late, but it has been quite cool.
July 30, 2001: I haven't seen any more Saturniidae here at lights, and even the Sphingidae have all but disappeared, just a few P. modesta and a lone D. pholus.
I saw a Catocala species the other evening and may try to do something with them. Are any of you interested in the underwing moths?
The luna cocoons that I am harvesting now are of darker silk, and larvae turned amber to burgundy before spinning, which is quite a surprise as I usually do not see this color change
(usually indicative of overwintering stock) this early in the season.
Some of my earliest Paonias excaecatus have left foliage and are getting ready to pupate. See the Sphingidae section.
One or two of the earliest Papilio canadensis have already turned brown and have hung themselves for pupation in an outdoor sleeve over pincherry.
August 3, 2001: A few Papilio canadensis have pupated as have some of the Paonias excaecatus. Many luna cocoons have been harvested and I expect first of polyphemus cocoons to be spunup this week. Some cecropia are in third instar as are columbia. They (earlier ones) should be harvested in about three more weeks. Also have some Pachysphinx modesta that are just about ready to pupate. They have been brought indoors to buckets so I can keep an eye on them. Left in remay sleeves, they chew holes right through the fabric to escape at pupation time.
Changed some (Sphinigdae) Smerinthus cerisyi and Darapsa pholus yesterday and they are also doing fine. I also expect to have a good batch of Hemaris thysbe pupae in the fall.
August 11, 2001: I harvested first of polyphemus cocoons on August 7. It has been very warm and dry here. Of about sixty cocoons harvested so far, half have been spun up high in foliage and half have been spun up in bottom folds of sleeves by descended larvae. I am anticipating high spinners will eclose this summer and bottom spinners will overwinter.
Columbia are also starting to spin and biggest cecropia appear to be about a week away from spin up. I continue to harvest lunas in good numbers and believe the cocons I am now getting are going to overwinter.
Darapsa pholus, Pachysphinx modesta, Smerinthus cerisyi and Sphinx poecila have all begun to pupate.
I have about one hundred white admiral (Limenitis arthemis arthemis) larvae feeding on poplar. I do not know whether these will shortly produce hibernaculi or whether they will continue development, eclose end of August and produce a fall brood that will make hibernaculi. I hope to get around to doing some scans shortly. On only one morning this summer (early to mid July) I witnessed, around 10:00 am, many white admiral butterflies feeding/drinking on staghorn sumac blooms. I do not know whether they were nectaring or merely drinking water that condensed as dew on the (green) flowers. I visited the same small trees for the next several days, same time, and saw no more activity despite admirals still on the wing.
Last summer I had problems with birds tearing through my remay sleeves and devouring fifth instar polyphemus just prior to spin up. This summer I have been covering almost all of my sleeves with "overcoat" sleeves of either fibreglass screening (expensive) or birdnetting. I am not having problems with birds, except in the few odds sleeves that did not get protection so I know the birds are still out there and the protection is working. I spent close to $700.00 this summer on the "defense" but all of the birdnetting (tied with string to make sleeves) and fibreglass (sewn to make sleeves) will likely last many years.
New prices have been posted. They go into effect September 1, 2001. Former prices will be honoured on all checks received prior to September 1. Price increases reflect additional expenses of fibreglass and birdnetting protection. Members (only) get a 10% discount on new prices and some of the Sphingidae are now less expensive than they used to be. I run this "hobby" as a small business and have a Canadian business number for income tax purposes. I do complete record keeping of sales (amounts, not people) and expenses, declare profits and pay taxes on same every year, and also apply for the GST (GOODS AN SERVICES TAX) rebate that the Canadian government offers to small businesses. I offer this explanation as I recently received a "concern" from one member regarding "high prices". You may occasionally find lower prices, but not better service, and I doubt that those who occasionally offer at lower prices are also paying taxes or declaring income on proceeds.
Major annual expenses include sleeve materials, postage, computer payments, high speed internet service, webspace rental, collecting trips (gas, accomodations), rearing property rent, winter storage (refrigeraton), etc.
I am especially appreciative of the many who submit images and information for this membership site. I hope that when I retire from teaching in two more years, I will be able to do something similar for Sphingidae and North American butterflies. I still have two more children at home and hope to help put them through university with proceeds from livestock and website membership sales. Thanks for your support.
About half of the polyphemus and luna have spun up and most should be done by end of month except for a small batch of late ones.
All of the Sphingidae ( modesta, excaecatus, cerisyi, poecila, pholus) have pupated except for a late batch of Paonias excaecatus and they are just about ready to be moved to pupation buckets.
Most of the Papilio canadensis have pupated and they should be finished within a few days.
People who received early summer lunas have been reporting successful eclosions the last week. I have a couple of females out now and may stil get eggs for those who want them from much further south.
White admiral larvae are progressing slowly. I thought perhaps they had entered dormant stage as many had moved into hibernaculi, but apparently they just hide in there during the day. I had about thirty hibernaculi in a ziploc tub, no larvae visible and then a few hours later, there were larvae crawling all over inside of tub.
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