livingplanet3 wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 4:08 pm I'm not certain of which species of tiger moth caterpillar you have, but if it's a Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia), here's a page giving the life cycle / time frames -

https://www.prairiehaven.com/?page_id=29859

If it's a Salt Marsh Moth (Estigmene acrea) -

https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/ve ... pillar.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estigmene_acrea

Incidentally, E. acrea has been especially abundant in North TX this spring; much more so than I have seen in many years.

Hmm… two factors: I would say that it’s the Salt Marsh Moth because I too have seen these guys everywhere this year. It started at the eclipse. I have another in my yard that I’m watching. And also the images of the mature adult look like what I have.

Thank you for your time and help.

I'm not certain of which species of tiger moth caterpillar you have, but if it's a Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia), here's a page giving the life cycle / time frames -

https://www.prairiehaven.com/?page_id=29859

If it's a Salt Marsh Moth (Estigmene acrea) -

https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/ve ... pillar.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estigmene_acrea

Incidentally, E. acrea has been especially abundant in North TX this spring; much more so than I have seen in many years.

Chuck wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2024 5:16 pm Last week, before it snowed, there was an unusual number of V. atlanta around.

It warmed up a bit three days ago, albeit with rain. Today it's 64F and sunny. There are hundreds of atlanta, everywhere. Most are flying fast, I've only observed one alight. They are absolutely beat.

So either there was a local population explosion late last year followed by a high winter survival rate, or they have migrated. Given the condition of them, I'd say they migrated en masse. I've never seen anything like this before.

We have here on the north side of the Lake Ontario also unusual numbers of V.atalanta.

Hi,

I’m a total newbie. I’m a retired programmer turned photographer. I have this fellow (see video) in my house and I’m hoping I can keep him happy until he turns into a pupa and then turns into a moth but I’m wondering about the timing. I want to do a time lapse. What would be great is to capture a time lapse of it turning into a pupa as well as when the moth comes out. But if I knew the timing it would help me prepare.

I’m hoping folks here can help me out. I’m in Austin, TX. I believe this is a Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar.

https://youtu.be/xdmj1M4XbNU?si=usvaETR8_czAGvfE

Maybe he's away on a collecting trip or on holiday. I guess he wouldn't schedule sales when he's away.

Adam.

bobw wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2024 7:29 am

Annarobertson1947 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:43 pm Yep, same result i got ,nothing to show
Will wait and tryin a week or so

That's because he's got nothing for sale right now.

I was wondering as he usually is on Ebay, thought i got Ebay name wrong :

This is his newer Ebay shop which he set up after he scammed everyone (myself included $400+)

https://www.ebay.com/usr/mundo-d-brujas

Jerk

livingplanet3 wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2024 5:33 pm
Here in North TX, for weeks now, I've been seeing more V. atalanta than ever before - absolute swarms of them. Of course, TX has always been a great place to see swarms of things, but the butterfly numbers here this spring are really outstanding. Not just atalanta, but also cardui and virginiensis are quite abundant. Many Polygonia interrogationis and Battus philenor as well, among others such as Danaus gilippus, D. plexippus, Anaea andria, and numerous Pieridae.

I suspect it would be possible to track the migration of (for example. V atlanta) with iNaturalist. Since one can filter by date, it would be possible to start "this week" and start working backwards. It would though reflect both emergences and migration; in the case of the V atlanta here, which are beat, I suspect that the "beat up butterfly" trend would be visually obvious from individual iNat records during those periods. Just an idea.

It's very cool to experience "out of the ordinary" occurrences with insects.

I still recall quite vividly the experience that I had in my early teens when some friends stopped over at my house and told me about all these monarch butterflies landing on a huge tree branch by a neighbor's house.

I ran over to investigate and sure enough we were experiencing a monarch overnighting "roost".

It would be the one and only time I would ever see such a phenomenon as that....

Chuck wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2024 5:16 pm Last week, before it snowed, there was an unusual number of V. atlanta around.

It warmed up a bit three days ago, albeit with rain. Today it's 64F and sunny. There are hundreds of atlanta, everywhere. Most are flying fast, I've only observed one alight. They are absolutely beat.

So either there was a local population explosion late last year followed by a high winter survival rate, or they have migrated. Given the condition of them, I'd say they migrated en masse. I've never seen anything like this before.

Here in North TX, for weeks now, I've been seeing more V. atalanta than ever before - absolute swarms of them. Of course, TX has always been a great place to see swarms of things, but the butterfly numbers here this spring are really outstanding. Not just atalanta, but also cardui and virginiensis are quite abundant. Many Polygonia interrogationis and Battus philenor as well, among others such as Danaus gilippus, D. plexippus, Anaea andria, and numerous Pieridae.

Last week, before it snowed, there was an unusual number of V. atlanta around.

It warmed up a bit three days ago, albeit with rain. Today it's 64F and sunny. There are hundreds of atlanta, everywhere. Most are flying fast, I've only observed one alight. They are absolutely beat.

So either there was a local population explosion late last year followed by a high winter survival rate, or they have migrated. Given the condition of them, I'd say they migrated en masse. I've never seen anything like this before.

Annarobertson1947 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:43 pm Yep, same result i got ,nothing to show
Will wait and tryin a week or so

That's because he's got nothing for sale right now.

Yep, same result i got ,nothing to show
Will wait and tryin a week or so

Yes, nice genus. T. lunulatus also comes in metallic blue.

58chevy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:58 pm These bugs are out in big numbers right now in E. Texas. Caught at least 30 of them this morning. They are about 10 to 12 mm long and look like miniature metallic green Goliath beetles. All were caught on flowers...

Very nice! I've often seen several species of Trichiotinus in my area, including lunulatus. They're nearly always on either prickly pear cactus flowers, or thistles. Most commonly, I see T. texanus -

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1803462/bgimage

And much less often, another trichiine, Trigonopeltastes delta -

https://bugguide.net/node/view/519253

These bugs are out in big numbers right now in E. Texas. Caught at least 30 of them this morning. They are about 10 to 12 mm long and look like miniature metallic green Goliath beetles. All were caught on flowers.

I'm unclear why IN has both Classifieds and Marketplace. What's the difference?

Which would be the best to sell some antique and classic entomology books?

Just for reference, it did it again at 1:30pm Eastern.

Here is a link towards Alexandre's shop : https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item=23 ... ameriana15

Inmotion says it comes from a technical issue in the code somewhere on InsectNet.

Could be the phpbb forum, I will try to update it with the last version next week... it is not so easy to do and there is a risk of bugging the whole forum so I am always reluctant to do this kind of upgrades. Not sure it will change anything but it's worth a try.