Whats happening around the world

[jackblack]

Here on the east coast of Australia collecting started out reasonable well at the start of the season early December and declined very quickly , weather paterns are out of sync., rain sporadic .Many common beetles are not there , few bee`s on blossom + other small insects , many farmers complain about lack of pollination of their fruit tree`s.
Have heard from a couple collectors , New Caledodia and Chile and they say also most unusaul weather few insects.
What are some of you other collectors around the world experiencing ??
I have never known a season like this in Nth Queensland in over 25 yrs of living here .

[lucanidae25]

This has been one of the wetest year I've ever experienced, I couldn't even be bothered to go out there to do any collecting this year at all. There's no point. I thought the dry years was bad but as least I've found a lot of rare beetles.

[downundermoths]

Jack... I too have never experienced such a poor season... My light traps are just not producing. I collect only one to three good specimens per night and I am using a combination of Mercury Vapour, Black Light, and Fluoro in two garden spots on most nights.

Normally at this time of year, and the past three months, I would be inundated with specimens to paper... Now I can set every moth immediately, they are so few.

I have been blaming the month of November... It was an incredibly horrid month with 24 days being more than 34 degrees Celsius, and only 8mm of rain in the final two days.

Did you have a bad November? Do you perhaps think there is some other reason?

We have had magnificent rainfall during December, January and February, so things should normally be buzzing...

I hope others have similar experiences that they can outline here...

Barry

[Deleted]

Come to Barnsley Bazza, I'll show you a REALLY wet summer. For the most part the summers here in England have been particularly poor for the last 5 years, here where I live in Northern England the numbers of adults of butterflies and moths have been significantly down, we have so little premium habitat left I cant see the situation ever getting any better, but hey as long as we can put a stop to collecting then we can destroy as much habitat as we like, collecting is the real reason species are getting rarer, right?

[bluemoth]

Been a very dry winter in California. I expect an early spring if the storm path keeps avoiding us. But with little rain will there be little food here for butterflies and larva? If so butterflies will be fewer. Time will tell.

[papilio28570]

Here in coastal North Carolina, it has an extremely warm winter. I remember only 3 or perhaps 4 nights when we had frost. Spring butterflies are already beginning to show up nearly a month early. Weatherman says we are low on rainfall by about a foot, and indeed, local pods are about 3 feet below normal, but the ground is and has been wet all winter to the point where grass roots are rotting below the soil line.

I've seen some more southern butterflies which are normally wiped out during the winter freeze, but they are flying about on warm days when temperature rises above 60F.

[ckswank]

Been an unusually warm winter here on the Gulf coast of Texas as well. We only had about 5 or 6 nights right at freezing. At least we are getting some much needed rain to counter last year's drought. It's been in the 80s a few times already here & overnight lows are up and down from 40-70 degrees F! Went out two nights ago & found three A. polyphemus. Found two species of sphinx moths so far in three outings, along with a few beetles. I guess only time will tell. At least we've escaped the terrible tornado outbreak that the midwest & midsouth had this week. Several small towns completely wiped off the map. My heart goes out to those living in these areas & hope you are all safe.

Charlie