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Post by Jonn on Oct 3, 2015 3:24:47 GMT -8
Checked my traps this morning to see if they were damaged from the 30 mph winds & rain last night and ended up catching my 3rd C. carissima. This one didn't get away.
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Post by Dany on Oct 5, 2015 9:15:50 GMT -8
A really interesting discussion!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2015 11:58:07 GMT -8
Of course it is. Catocala are very interesting moths. Collect some if you don't already and you will see for yourself
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Oct 5, 2015 13:00:13 GMT -8
I am currently in western Pennsylvania visiting family. Set out two bait traps(H-Type = Slotted Pan Type). Checked them this AM. Several Catocala vidua, 8 or 9 C. relicta (four very fresh females). Lots of worn Catocala, red/yellow & black.
I saw very few butterflies. However, I collect a very nice male Polygonia progne. Found an area with some Robes and relocated one of my baits to there.
I also set out a light trap. Only a few noctuids, temperature was down to 44 degrees last night. Not good for moth collecting.
More tomorrow.
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Post by rayrard on Oct 5, 2015 20:47:48 GMT -8
Have not tried for Catocala since my bait was used up. Have not seen any either.
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Oct 6, 2015 15:48:58 GMT -8
Still IN western Pennsylvania, the overnight temperature was 49 degrees. Only two very worn Catocala vidua (just a good guess)and one Eupslia and a couple of Lithophane.
Went back to the Ribes location and poked around for about two hours and found no more Polygonia progne. I looked at numerous Ribes plants, found lots of signs of chewing, but no caterpillars or pupae.
About a mile up stream found a nice patch of marijoewana. I took no cuttings or samples. Took down the GPS location passed it along to someone who might care.
Now that my crime fighting was finished, I collected my traps and headed back to Pittsburgh. Going home early tomorrow AM.
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Oct 10, 2015 7:15:31 GMT -8
I went out this AM to collect my remaining bait traps. Several good looking Catocala vidua and a nice female C. retecta. I let them all fly.
I set out three light traps in diferent location, I managed to take a couple hundred moths in each trap. I was after Papaipema moths. I collected six species, including stunning male of Papaipema new species No.4. A cane feeder, it was taken in a light trap in a large stand of cane along the Rockcastle River in Rockcaslte County,KY.
I collected 50+ Eupsila moths. Not bad for a rather cool night with a low in the upper forties.
To top off a night of great collecting, I stopped at the Waffle House in Mt. Sterling, KY. Greasy Steak and eggs, hash browns and biscuts.
I will spend most of the day mounting moths.
Are there any other Noctuid moth collector's out there?
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Post by vabrou on Oct 13, 2015 12:49:07 GMT -8
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2015 16:26:35 GMT -8
What species of tarantula is in Louisiana? Aphonopelma hentzi??
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Post by vabrou on Oct 13, 2015 16:29:18 GMT -8
I do not know. I cannot know everything, so I specialized on moths.
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Post by joee30 on Oct 13, 2015 16:43:28 GMT -8
Vabrou, seeing those pictures just makes me want to head to Louisiana and do some collecting down there. Hopefully we get the "Big" el niño this winter that the weather people are raving about. It will be a good year here in the Sierras and the Great Basin. I am def going to go look for Papilio indra cats to rear this year since we have two species in the area. We shall see...
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Post by coloradeo on Oct 13, 2015 17:43:35 GMT -8
Vabrou -- what kind of light contraption is that? Does it work better than a sheet with a light on it for you? An amazing haul to be sure!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2015 18:10:54 GMT -8
I remember some of the pictures you've posted here and on FB, talk about collecting on a professional level!
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Post by vabrou on Oct 13, 2015 18:36:26 GMT -8
Coloradeo, Last time I used a sheet was in 1969. White surfaces reflect your light away from your collecting area, thus actually repelling the specimens away from your collecting area. Here is a link to some of my light traps I have used since 1969, where you will note al of my traps are painted black. While you are sitting in front of a sheet with a killing jar, I am sleeping or watching a football game www.academia.edu/9665262/Images_of_some_of_the_insect_traps_designed_fabricated_and_operated_byLook at it this way. My various traps collect over a time period of 8,736 available hours each year, most importantly, collecting without me being present for even a single hour. I have run some years in excess of 150 insect traps year round, that means I have accomplished operating 1,310,400 trap hours in each of those years, without expending a single man-hour holding a jar in front of a sheet. That would be the equivalent of you having a staff of nearly 630 collectors each working 40 hours per week for an entire year sitting in front of your 630 sheets with a half million cyanide jars. Oh, and without bathroom breaks, nor lunch breaks, nor smoke brakes, nor sick and vacation days. But the real kicker in all of this is that I will find hundreds more species and hundreds of thousands to millions of specimens that your 630 employees will never find using the sheet method. Why, because a sheet is not a capture device and because it is white, the sheet actually repels insects coming to the light. So, you choose, each year expend 1,310,400 trap/man hours using the sheet method or ‘ZERO’ man hours using the collection chamber method. I am completing my 46th continuous year (2015) of non-stop light trapping.
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Post by rayrard on Oct 14, 2015 8:57:20 GMT -8
Hello Vernon,
Have you been able to correlate any specific weather conditions to the "best" hauls? I see that you have good nights more frequently due to your big and powerful traps, but we were discussing which nights were the best bets for collecting Catocala for example. Have you noticed a combination of temperature, humidity, weather pattern, wind, moon, dryness, or anything that accentuated the movement of Catocala at night there?
Since you collect like every night, it would be a good opportunity for an interested student to sit down with weather history data for your area and try and correlate the best moth hauls with a particular factor.
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