So, what's on your spreading board ?

[alandmor]

Can you please tell us again your source for these collapsible nets? They look very nice and handy to have. Thx!

[Chuck]

Can you please tell us again your source for these collapsible nets? They look very nice and handy to have. Thx!

viewtopic.php?p=10217&hilit=BQNPS#p10217

[martellat0]

For your consideration: A possibly aberrant male specimen of Hypolimnas bolina philippensis, mounted verso so as to showcase what I believe to be atypical coloration for this species. This is one of the most common Nymphalids in the entirety of the Philippines - I myself have probably seen hundreds. Thus, upon seeing this particular individual, I was immediately able to tell that something was off.


Caught about an hour ago on Cebu island, Philippines.


Here is the same specimen (left) compared with another individual. Note the absence of the usual white marginal lunules on the hindwings. Additionally, the same lunules and the white submarginal lunules are absent on the ventral forewings (please refer to the first picture for a better view).


Furthermore, this specimen seems to have no white scales whatsoever on the dorsal hindwing, although this is well within the normal color variability that one can expect in males of this species. Below is another specimen showing a more typical hindwing pattern. It's possible that the absence of the aforementioned elements in the ventral wing surfaces are also due to phenotypic plasticity (instead of, say, abnormal melanism) but I find this specimen to be interesting nonetheless.

[martellat0]

Here's another recent highlight:

A female Troides rhadamantus in perfect condition (save for a few light scuff marks on the wings) caught yesterday, 18 - x - 2024 on Cebu Island, Philippines. These are a favorite of mine - as much as I adore mounted specimens, it's almost as much of a treat to simply gaze up at them as they soar through the canopy. When the sunlight hits them, one can observe that the yellow regions of their hindwings have a slightly vitrine quality to them, almost like yellow stained glass.

Here's a shot of the specimen shortly after I caught it.

[boghaunter1]

Hello all,

I have arrived late to this thread as I left the following specimens on the boards for 2 months+ to ensure no wing drooping. On 29 Aug. 2024 I had the good fortune to find a perfect Hyles euphorbiae in my 250W M.V. trap. I was very surprised, as I peered through the screen door, by the beautiful pink ventral coloring of this 1st ever, (in 48 years of light trapping!), recorded specimen, for my area in central N.E. Sask. Canada. Commonly known as the Spurge Hawkmoth, Hyles euphorbiae larvae feed on Leafy Spurge, Euphorbia virgata, which is a very serious weed that can overtake large tracts of pasture/rangeland. It was originally imported, from Europe, as a biological control agent... first into Ontario, Canada & was, in the early 1960's, introduced into the southern prairie provinces of Sask., Manitoba, & Alberta. All the records I could find online, for Sask., showed it is occasionally found, some years, only around Regina & Moose Jaw (& yes that is a smaller city in S. Sask.!). My specimen has left me a little confused, as there are, to my knowledge, no Leafy Spurge infestations that occur this far north. We did, however, have strong SE & SW winds the 2 days prior to my capture. The confusing part is that the moth is scale perfect & wouldn't look that good if blown up from southern Sask. I think there may be (not sure?) cultivated, ornamental, landscaping/garden Euphorbia species about. This Sphinx moth has been found occasionally in southern Manitoba (Brandon area) & is more commonly found, although sparingly, most years, in southern Alberta. Interestingly the farthest known northern record for Alberta is in the immediate vicinity of Edmonton which is quite a bit farther north then my location. The Spurge Hawkmoth is more commonly found in the U.S. northern states bordering Canada as many online records show.

Spurge Hawkmoth - Hyles euphorbiae, dorsal - 29 Aug. 2024 - Bjorkdale, Sask., Canada

Spurge Hawkmoth, dorsal, small, 29 Aug. 2024.jpg (257.22 KiB) Viewed 640 times

Spurge Hawkmoth - Hyles euphorbiae, ventral - 29 Aug. 2024 - Bjorkdale, Sask., Canada

Spurge Hawkmoth, ventral, small, 29 Aug. 2024.jpg (324.37 KiB) Viewed 640 times

I also had the good fortune to collect (unbelievably... all in the same B.L. trap!) 3 scale perfect White-lined Sphinx moths, Hyles lineata on 22 Aug. '24, 29 Aug. '24 (same morning as the Spurge Hawkmoth!), & the last one on 10 Sept. '24. I gather, from literature & info online, that this is one of the most common Sphinx moths found in N. Am. (at least south of the 49th parallel/Canada's southern border). It's appearance, this far north, at my location, is quite a rare occurrence... but I have actually, previously collected, almost a dozen specimens in Aug.- Sept. over the years! All of them, with the exception of 2 were captured in light traps. The 2 exceptions were hand netted (after a heck of an hour & a half crazy chase!) on a sunny Aug. afternoon a number of years ago. These 2 were nectaring on 2nd cut, freshly blooming Alfalfa, just SW of my farm yard.

My Spurge Hawkmoth & the 3 White-lined Sphinx moths described above.

1 H. euphorbiae, 3 H. lineata, Aug.-Sept. 202, small4.jpg (347.36 KiB) Viewed 640 times

John K.

[Chuck]

Spectacular! I have caught ONE Hyles euphorbiae, just two years ago, in NY. Like yours, perfect as if it just emerged.

Up this way, Hyles lineata are equally rare. Thus, it's rather a disappointment when one travels south and gets twenty in one night. It's not rare, it's just rare here.

[eurytides]

Sure, I will play. This summer I went to southern Ontario and was successful in locating the very rare and local Callosamia angulifera. Found some larvae and raised them all. A few emerged to form a partial second generation. The rest are in the fridge.

I also located some Asterocampa clyton. I remember a thread here some time ago where people said this was rare and females were especially hard to capture. It only took minutes searching on a single tree with a UV flashlight to locate numerous pupae. These are all ex pupa females.

[Chuck]

It only took minutes searching on a single tree with a UV flashlight

You're really on to something with that UV flashlight. How long would it have taken to collect those as adults in the field with a net?

That's the beauty of night lighting with MV and BLB- sit in a chair, minimal effort, drink a beer. Your method yields butterflies as well though.

I recall reading about some pupae and cocoons that fluoresce; though was it you that said cocoons fluoresce only when freshly spun? In any event, I wonder if you could find pupae in winter with that flashlight.

[eurytides]

I have only tried with a couple of silkmoth species but yes fresh silk does seem to fluoresce. Old cocoons in my collection don’t do much and would just look brown in the dark.

[Trehopr1]

Those are some superb specimens indeed !

You did a fine job breeding out the larvae which you found of the tulip tree moth. You were also incredibly fortunate to find some chrysalids of Asterocampa clyton.

It would be nice sometime to see additional pictures of your "setting" handiwork in your collection.

[eurytides]

Thanks Trehopr1. The Asterocampa clyton pupae were totally by accident. I didn't go to that location searching for them. But whenever I go somewhere, I just have a habit of walking around in the dark with a UV light to see if I spot anything cool, and I saw these. They were incredibly easy to find. I think the first night, I saw more than a dozen. I got tired of grabbing them after about 5 minutes and decided to look for something else lol. I took 8 the first night, see picture. They pupate on the underside of the hackberry leaves and even without a light, you could probably find them easily during the day with some careful searching.

As for the Callosamia angulifera, that was my "target." Every year, you see single digit records of this species in ON. They are found in 3 isolated and small colonies. I was only down there for a week with the family and every night I would go out searching with my UV light. The eggs glow under UV so it's not hard to see them. The larvae glow too. Anyway, it was the second or third night I think and I came across 8 larvae. There's not a lot of tuliptree where I live so when I got back home I actually spent $300 and bought a tuliptree which is now planted in my back yard. All 8 larvae were raised indoors and spun cocoons early August. A pair unexpectedly emerged mid September and mated and I got eggs from that second generation which I also raised.

I found more stuff this summer but they are in the fridge (including some Eumorpha pandorus). When they are out and pinned, I will share more photos. I don't actually have a huge collection or keep many specimens every year. Pretty much everything I have is ex pupa and it takes a long time to raise them from eggs or larvae to an adult. Sometimes I will find a species and won't have that specimen set and labelled until the next year after they overwinter and emerge as adults. But for me, I like rearing. It's enjoyable, I get to really learn about that species in detail (as opposed to just catching an adult), my specimens are ex pupae, and I have full rearing data for everything.

[Trehopr1]

Thank you eurytides for your kind reply and very interesting post.
I would have never thought to look under leaves for chrysalids !
They're certainly perfectly camouflaged much like monarch chrysalids are....

I really do admire hobbyists like yourself who are fascinated by the life cycles of things and take a scientific approach to breeding things through while documenting all sorts of information along the way.

A very honorable path indeed and certainly inspiring to those with a similar like-mindedness.

I do know that Adam, DaveUK, and kevinkk have all done quite a measure of breeding of various species. Between all three fellas one could probably cobble together a nice little book based on all their insights and findings....

[eurytides]

Thanks again for the kind words.

Honestly, I didn't know anything about Asterocampa before I found them. They aren't found where I live in eastern Ontario and I had never bothered researching them. When I saw the pupae, I knew they were nymphalids but I had to google them to actually figure out what they were. It helped that they were on hackberry. Not many bugs eat that as a host plant. The funny thing is that while I was there, I never saw a single adult male or female, not even a beat up one. I think sometimes people post about certain species being rare, but it's just that they are rarely seen, not actually rare. I didn't see a single adult but there were loads of these pupae and I also saw caterpillars. There were also several empty pupae on the tree and also on some plants under the tree. So evidently, they pupate mostly on the leaves of the host but also in the brush underneath the host sometimes. I say "the tree" because I only looked at one tree and didn't even bother searching for others. I'm sure I could have found hundreds.

As for the Callosamia angulifera, part of the reason I wanted to raise them is that I want to write about this species next year when I have enough data. I don't think they are reared often, and when they are, people assume they are well known and just don't pay much attention. Certainly, no one has written about them in Canada. I've read a bunch of papers from Peigler and also the Silkmoths of NA by Tuskes. I definitely have new information to add. For example, you will see various resources repeat that angulifera females mate and lay eggs the next day. This is contrary to the other silkmoths I've raised, and certainly, Callosamia promethea lay eggs as soon as the females detach. So I thought this was rather strange, but did not think to question the "experts." When I had a female emerge, I thought she wasn't going to do anything that night and just left her alone in her container. Well, when I checked on her later that night, she had mated with a male and laid about 20 eggs. I put her in a bag and another 20 were laid by next morning. So even simple behaviours like that are not well documented. I'm hoping to get more eggs next year and also try some different host plants besides tuliptree to see if there are differences in growth rates...etc.

[eurytides]

You asked for more of my specimens, so here are a few more. This is all I have on my phone at the moment. All ex pupa/cocoon. The cecropia collection took a number of years to amass....one drawer is enough for me. The tiger swallowtails are the midsummer tigers Chuck and I have been researching and chatting about in other threads. The American snout is a very rare butterflies in my area, documented just a few times before. I raised a series a few years ago. They have really cute pure green pupae that are just over 1 cm long that you would never find in a million years if you were just looking on the tree. I didn't have a UV light yet back then, so it's entirely possible they would glow under UV and could be easily found that way.

[Chuck]

so when I got back home I actually spent $300 and bought a tuliptree

Priceless. That's dedication! Your price per specimen eclipsed Ornithoptera victoriae.

[eurytides]

Let me tell you Chuck, my wife was not happy I bought that tree. We seriously don’t have room for it in the yard. She said I could keep it so long as I pruned it every year and made sure it didn’t grow any taller…

[eurytides]

And the price per specimen is even worse if you take into account the money we spent on lodgings and gas.

[kevinkk]

Pretty cool Eurytides. I buy trees as well, everything in the yard I have is a foodplant, and using uv light does work, I haven't hunted with it, but
I've used it on Papilo rutulus larva, which do not show up, and Smerinthus ceryisi which show up very well. My yard is overcrowded as well

The expenses, field time is just like deer hunting was, by the pound, venison gets expensive.

[Trehopr1]

Again, some more superb specimens !

Thank you eurytides for sharing those pictures with us.

[eurytides]

Most green larvae glow under UV, except tiger swallowtails it seems. However, the yellow transverse band behind the thorax does glow. Their fake eye spots also glow. I have found them at night using my UV light.