What's the deal with Catocala?

[rayrard]

I really have no idea what to make of these moths.

I went out in the late afternoon 10 days ago to a nice bottomwood swamp forest with lots ofs oak and hickory. It had just rained and it was very wet, and I was finding no Catocala on trees but more than a dozen of them on an abandoned house. I got three large species (3 lacrymosa, 2 carissima, 4 piatrix) and a C. amica just hitting the house with my net. There were more that flew away.

Now on Tuesday I went upstate to the Piedmont (2 hours away) with my net, blacklight, and bait. My bait was brown sugar/banana/beer and had sat in the SC heat for a day previous. I went up and found the best deciduous habitat I could find and had the worst sheet I ever had! Nothing good at the bait but small Idia and nothing good at the sheet. Not a single Catocala. On the way home, none even at the few good gas stations on Rt. 26. New moon and humid as heck. What gives?

Now last night I went out to the SAME exact spot where I got the Catocala on the 12th. I set up my blacklight right next to the abandoned shack where I got all of them last time. I brought the jug of bait and finished the thing off on a dozen trees around the area. Guess what? NOTHING at all the entire night. I got more cool beetles at the bait than moths. Not a single Catocala of any species.

I am extremely frustrated given conditions were IDEAL both nights with no moon, high humidity, great old growth forest, and not too dry around here. With the few times I can afford to get out and do these trips, I wanted to hit some underwings on these trips and they were complete disasters.

Are there conditions that are ideal for Catocala that allowed me to get all those moths that one day? Where the heck do you guys go to get 7-8 species on trees? I haven't found a single one on a tree yet (all of them were on a house).

What can I do to improve my luck?

[oehlkew]

To improve your luck, you need to get lucky, or not be unlucky. Sometimes if there is fermenting tree sap or rotting fruit or an attractant bloom nearby, the moths will visit those natural sources of food rather than responding to lights or your own bait.
I have not been following the moon of late, but a full moon on a clear night often results in poor collecting. No moon or a moon, obscured by clouds, will often help you get lucky with Catocala as well as with other moths.

Very interesting that the building had so many visitors. It would be nice to know what the attractant was at the house?

Bill Oehlke

[rayrard]

Jul 24, 2012 6:44:33 GMT -8 oehlkew said:

To improve your luck, you need to get lucky, or not be unlucky. Sometimes if there is fermenting tree sap or rotting fruit or an attractant bloom nearby, the moths will visit those natural sources of food rather than responding to lights or your own bait.
I have not been following the moon of late, but a full moon on a clear night often results in poor collecting. No moon or a moon, obscured by clouds, will often help you get lucky with Catocala as well as with other moths.

Very interesting that the building had so many visitors. It would be nice to know what the attractant was at the house?

Bill Oehlke

the Moon was New or a narrow crescent the last week so that wasn't an issue. I tried another place last night but was driven away by a thunderstorm. The hour I was out failed to produce any Catocala. Pure luck is beginning to wear thin!

As for that building, I went out a second time and found ZERO Catocala at the same building (tapping and light and bait deployed). The first time, when I saw at least a dozen of them, it was simply tapping the house with my net in the late afternoon with no light or bait. Odd that I'd strike out with three techniques and succeed on anohter day with one technique at the same locality.

The only difference was that it was very wet when I found all those moths the first time. Maybe they had came off the trees and had congregated at the house to get out of the rainstorm? But this doesn't explain why I failed miserably a few days later.

[oehlkew]

I wonder if the old house still had remains of a fragrant night blooming flower around it, or possibly an old white oak with a wound, bleeding sap?
What is your hypothesis? Something is responsible for the "mysterious"
no show of Catocala in your area.
Bill Oehlke

[multicaudata]

On a trip to Ohio last September, it rained cats and dogs the first three days, and I found little. On the afternoon of the third day I found a single C. relicta under the eaves on a building, and nearby a unijuga sitting in a tiny dry spot on a treetrunk. They seem to go to dry places when it's really wet. Maybe that house was the only dry roosting place available in the area on the very wet day, and on later days it wasn't as wet so there were other places for 'em to go.

Here in California, underwings are more restricted to isolated riparian hammocks, where I find them simply by staring at the treetrunks until I see them. It must be harder to find them in the East, which is essentially one big riparian hammock!