Appreciate the photos of your wonderful self caught specimens !

Feel free to post them anytime.

Many thanks!

That’s a good time for that area, especially if they’ve had good winter rain. Joshua Tree National Park is off-limits and so is Anza-Borrego Desert Park unless you have a permit. BLM and National Forests are open for collecting.

Chuck wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2024 5:17 pm I'd not rule out a giant anything.

Agreed, although anymore even a photo is going to have doubters, AI and awesome graphics with proper animation make dinosaurs look real, and we all are pretty sure about that.
When it gets to the news on tv, I'll have to wait and see.

Hi kevinkk,

Just collected, in one of my M.V. traps, a nice fresh specimen of the same Herald moth (Scoliopteryx libatrix); the night was cool (low of +3.5 C = +38.0 F), calm & clear. This moth is common up here in Sask. & overwinters & will be seen again next spring/early summer. Also found in my traps, 2 spp. of underwings... worn singletons of C. briseis & C. relicta. Last Saturday afternoon (05 Oct... daytime high was only +5.0 C = 41.0 F) we had, following 8 hrs. of steady rain, 2 hrs. of heavy, wet, sleety SNOW! Fortunately it melted as it hit the still warmer ground. Daytime temp. today, 08 Oct., is supposed to hit +20.0 C = 68 F... yesterday was +19.0 C = 67.0 F... crazy temp. swings... winter is not far away... !

John K.

58chevy wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2024 10:02 pm The breathing apparatus (booklike "lungs") of spiders would not function in an arthropod as large as j'ba fofi.

Is this for certain? What if it has adapted? "Lung" adaptations aside, as Kevin mentioned there is the coconut crab, just a big hermit crab that doesn't need a shell home, which can span over a meter. The aquatic king crabs and others dwarf the coconut crab.

"studies in Chicago with the beetles raised under elevated oxygen bear out the mathmatics of Titanus
being the upper limit for bulk"

There are many limiting factors, not just oxygen. For largemouth bass it's a lack of foraging during winter; the NYS record is 12lbs, which is a joke in FL. Insects have a natural cycle, and lifespan, which is limiting- the larvae of beetles for example don't double their larval stage period, so there's that, plus the limit of the food source, time to digest, etc.

If Thor Hyerdahl was telling the truth, during his first Pacific crossing he captured two 6' eel elves; this means either there's an eel that never matures, or there's a 200' long eel.

I'd not rule out a giant anything.

That said, what is usually in doubt is the report. Lay persons often report they have a 24" moth, and then I get that cecropia, and it's not even in the ballpark. Ditto spiders- reports of hand-sized spiders and when I go look at it, it's a bloody water spider with a 3.5" span...ooohhh. When sizes of animals are claimed I fall in the "show me a photo" group.

Later, I realized that I can't really compare insects with other land Arthropods, I forgot about coconut crabs, giant centipedes, and I have seen
the giant tarantulas at reptile shows, which are big enough for most of us.
There is a lot of good "cryptid" video on youtube though, I have to skip over all the bait, otherwise I'd never find any b movies to watch.

anton wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2024 4:12 am Nicely done, i love catching these but hate pinning dried and rehydrated specimens they are near impossible for me to set unless they are fresh off the lantana

They really aren't that hard if you relax them well. See my personal method in the old forum - https://collector-secret.proboards.com/ ... ers?page=2. I explain how I relax after all the pics of skippers.

John

I checked some of the literature I have here (mainly on my subject - Papilionidae) and also could not find any photos. I did not have a copy of Okano & Okano (1986), but I just found it online, with photos of the types. A copy can be downloaded here:
https://iwate-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/1 ... 05-111.pdf
Your specimens look very similar and should be representative of the subspecies.

Euploea mulciber is a widespread species with very many subspecies across SE Asia which probably do not move from island to island except for very occasional accidental movement - a typhoon could possibly be one reason. This species is rather robust and could likely survive being blown long distance in a storm. I recently reviewed a manuscript about a much more flimsy butterfly that was apparently blown from Taiwan to Okinawa and survived.

Adam.

Thanks for the reply (and for taking the time to properly cite that checklist!)

Shame about the lack of accompanying photographs - I would have liked to finally put a face to the name, so to speak. For now though, I'm reasonably satisfied with this ID.

Cheers!

Treadaway & Schroeder (2012) list 17 different subspecies of Euploea mulciber in the Philippines, including Euploea mulciber cebuensis Okano & Okano, 1986 restricted to Cebu, so I would expect that your specimens can be referred to that subspecies. They do not illustrate this species at all.

Ref.: Treadaway, C. G. & H. G. Schroeder 2012. Revised checklist of the butterflies of the Philippine Islands (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera). Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo, Supplementum 20: 1-64.

Adam.

PS. Welcome to Insectnet!

Nicely done, i love catching these but hate pinning dried and rehydrated specimens they are near impossible for me to set unless they are fresh off the lantana

As for other small specimens, for your consideration are these Danaines:


A male Danaus melanippus edmondii.


A female (left) and male (right) Euploea tulliolus pollita, caught on the same day in the same place.

On the other side of the coin, here's a recent catch - a male Hypolimnas bolina philippensis. It's a monster of a specimen, dwarfing even my largest female. It's pictured below alongside what I would call "typically sized" specimens of a male and female of that species, which were caught in the same spot, about a week apart.


And here are some photos showcasing the blue iridescence of its hindwings.



A common species, but a quite spectacular individual (and in pristine condition too!).

Paul,

I believe you will find this interesting -

Pictured are thirty-eight individual specimens of Catopsilia pomona pomona. These were netted across four days in June last year, during their southerly migration in Cebu island. My home happened to be near their path, and so I gladly took the opportunity to capitalize on an opportunity that rarely ever presents itself, let alone to eager collectors such as myself. I believe this series represents five out the of six forms of C. p. pomona that occurs within the Philippines, with the exception of f. catilla, which is largely distinguishable from f. pomona by the underside anyway.

As you can see, there is much variability to be had with regards to their size. The ones on the smaller end of the spectrum are under 4 cm wingspan, while the large ones average about 6 cm. Given that this species - along with other Pierids - is known to be gregarious within the larval stage, I believe the specimens within this box lend some (anecdotal) credibility to the hypothesis that smaller sized individuals are the result of food scarcity during larval development, given that they compete with one another for resources and space. Furthermore, this migration (or at least, the mass eclosion) usually occurs during the hottest months of the summer, wherein a lack of food plants could ostensibly be attributed to the extreme heat. Additionally, I myself have only observed this extreme size variability during this event - specimens of C. pomona netted during other months of the year (i.e. when numbers are "normal") do not get smaller than 5.5 cm across (mounted) and are all largely the same size.

I'd be willing to take closer photographs of individual specimens if anyone is interested.

Panacanthus wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2024 11:27 pm Thank you everyone for such kind comments. You are all an inspiration! Finding other people who share our passion for insects can sometimes be a challenge, and I have always been grateful for this forum! I very much appreciate all of you!

Same! I hope this forum will keep going for many years to come.

Thank you everyone for such kind comments. You are all an inspiration! Finding other people who share our passion for insects can sometimes be a challenge, and I have always been grateful for this forum! I very much appreciate all of you!

I'm might not be up to date on the latest info but the pdf linked below is a list of species that can't be taken without a permit and it is not short. But most species other than the monarch are quite local and won't be encountered without effort. So just make sure you can recognize the species/subspecies that may be in the area you are targeting and you'll be fine.

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx ... tID=149499

I've found the checklist:
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/NEVA-SUP_14_0001-0188.pdf
Page 64 of the manuscript (not the PDF file) indicates that Cebu island only has one subspecies, cebuensis. Still, the journal was published almost thirty years ago, so it's possible this is no longer the case. Any photos of cebuensis would be much appreciated, as would the opinions of the experts that undoubtedly frequent these boards. Thanks!

The breathing apparatus (booklike "lungs") of spiders would not function in an arthropod as large as j'ba fofi.