I would check out the Lorquin Society, which is largely a network of Lepidopterists in southern CA that's been around for decades. I know there are all kinds of members doing all kinds of fieldwork in CA that gets published.

If you really want a great field experience during that timeframe, I would ...

I would recommend a bucket trap with either a 15, 25 or 40 watt BL UV light connected to a DC battery, that way you can move it around. You also don't need to tend it all night, you can put it out at dusk and collect it the next morning. Generally the higher the power, the larger the species of ...

I've seen Troides and O. priamus at Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale AZ before, but not commonly. They always seem to have Morphos and Caligos though along with the more common Pierids and Nymphalids. It's worth checking out if you are in the area.

I’ve done quite a bit of collecting in S. CA and I’ve never been hassled by law enforcement at all, let alone for collecting anything “endangered”. I don’t really even think about it, but I also don’t target anything really rare or localized.

The females of E. oslari in particular are extremely variable, they come in almost every color.

Another good time to go to AZ is at the end of August and beginning of September. It's a bit different though because it's a lot more driving and farther north. There's 4 Hemileucas to go after (hera ...

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.

Here are a few of the Saturniids I've caught in the last couple of months that are drying on my boards right now.

I've found E. gloriosa to be really common in the southwest on Cucurbita foetidissima, which is a very conspicuous sprawling vine with big dagger-shaped leaves that grows along highways in patches. E. snowii also uses it and their larvae make galls in the vines of the plants, so it is really easy to ...

Although I don't live there, right about now would be around the peak of the blacklighting season in the mountains for things like Hyalophora gloveri and Agapema homogena. It's a bit too early for great Hemileuca collecting, which would probably be in early to mid-August. 2 years ago it was ...

Do you ever collect any of the Hemileucas in Oregon Kevin? There are some really cool color forms of H. eglanterina, H. nuttalli, and H. hera in south/central OR.

Nice. “Rare” is a matter of perspective. In my experience if you know where/when to go find something and how to collect it, pretty much everything can be common.

Also, the pupation of an Arctiid is kind of boring and takes a long time. Once they find a pupation site and spin a cocoon, they curl up into a fetal position and shed the long guard hairs of the larvae, so they look short, fat and covered in stubble, and then after about 2-3 days the skin splits ...

It depends on both the species and where you live. A lot of the tiger moths are univoltine (1 brood per year), but not all, and their life cycle is weird. They may go all the way through from egg -> larva -> pupa, but many species actually overwinter as larvae, sometimes very young ones or sometimes ...

Although I've never taken C. briseis, I have the very similar C. grotiana, which I used to think was special until I found the spot for them, where I had a couple hundred to my lights in one night, along with dozens of C. hermia and relicta. I still think grotiana is one of the prettiest North ...

Ever see the males in the daytime? They are pretty cool with transparent forewings.

With A. oslari I had never seen a male until I put out a virgin female and within 30 seconds, I had about a dozen males swarming me at Pena Blanca Canyon a couple of years ago. It's interesting that something can ...

Yes they will come to her assuming she calls and assuming there are males flying. Exactly what the pheromone is chemically is probably unknown and the exact flight time of the males might vary though. I've found that the males of the western Smerinthus fly really late, like 1-3 AM. Good luck. I ...

Keep in mind that they see in a different wavelength, so just because it looks like it would be a good mimic to our eyes, it isn't necessarily good to them. It would be interesting to know what the world looks like through their eyes.

Based on some of my field work/experiences, I suspect that some ...

It's widespread but kind of rare in Arizona. I've gotten them up by Flagstaff, over in the White Mountains near Springerville, in the Chiricahua Mountains, and in the Santa Catalinas by Tucson, but I've never encountered them very commonly. They are much more common in the high country of Colorado ...

Most of what holds the wings in place is the dried muscles at the joint between the wings and the thorax. So by relaxing the thorax, you relax those and the wings will instantly droop. In my opinion, with how fragile/brittle dried specimens are, you should just relax the whole thing and repin it ...

Not to be negative, but it’s been pretty bad for several years. I’d say that 2019 was the last average year of monsoon collecting. I doubt 2024 will be great because we are experiencing El Nino conditions, which means wet winters and dry summers. So I bet it will be kind of dry and crappy. La Nina ...