leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Sept 12, 2018 4:08:24 GMT -8
I missed a species from my list. Catocala epione. It is rather common and very wing worn by September.
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Post by fishnbugz on Sept 13, 2018 10:20:37 GMT -8
I spent a couple nights at the camper, but it was so windy I only baited a couple traps. I ran two 400w MV lights hoping for Parthenice tiger moths, and it looks like I timed it perfectly. I caught 12 parthenice and 4 arge the first night, and another 5 parthenice and 4 arge the second night. For Catocala I saw some worn amatrix and one parta, but no keepers. This morning I had a worn Thysania zenobia in a trap, my first ever. I also found two Speyeria idalia, dead and floating in a bucket of water. I'll do what I can with them but they're pretty rough, probably they were already there last time I was up but I didn't notice. My normal sighting of idalia is a fast cruiser that I have no chance of catching anyway, so at least I could catch these. One of the arge is a female with the beautiful pink hindwings, and 4 of the parthenice are female. Almost all of the tiger moths are in excellent condition. No relicta so far but I'll keep hoping, I caught one on the 26th a few years ago so there's still a chance...
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Post by mothman27 on Sept 13, 2018 13:37:50 GMT -8
I spent a couple nights at the camper, but it was so windy I only baited a couple traps. I ran two 400w MV lights hoping for Parthenice tiger moths, and it looks like I timed it perfectly. I caught 12 parthenice and 4 arge the first night, and another 5 parthenice and 4 arge the second night. For Catocala I saw some worn amatrix and one parta, but no keepers. This morning I had a worn Thysania zenobia in a trap, my first ever. I also found two Speyeria idalia, dead and floating in a bucket of water. I'll do what I can with them but they're pretty rough, probably they were already there last time I was up but I didn't notice. My normal sighting of idalia is a fast cruiser that I have no chance of catching anyway, so at least I could catch these. One of the arge is a female with the beautiful pink hindwings, and 4 of the parthenice are female. Almost all of the tiger moths are in excellent condition. No relicta so far but I'll keep hoping, I caught one on the 26th a few years ago so there's still a chance... Wow! I'm envious. I a glad I did get my first ever G. arge this year.
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Post by fishnbugz on Sept 14, 2018 17:38:08 GMT -8
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Post by Adam Cotton on Sept 15, 2018 2:32:14 GMT -8
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Post by fishnbugz on Sept 16, 2018 6:35:43 GMT -8
Thanks Adam, I was doing it the lazy way aka Add Attachment button. I used to share lots of fish pics off shutterfly- but it's been so long I forgot the steps and didn't link it right I guess. Here's the Speyeria idalia, I spotted them both dead in a bucket of black-looking water when I drove by mowing the grass. They might be rough, but I'll still save 'em. I've only seen this species once before at home, and failed to catch it. I occasionally still re-live that foolish mess in nightmares and kick myself again, it was a A-1 stunning female sitting on a thistle. I see them occasionally in South Dakota, but they're usually going by fast while I'm out in the boat and can't be caught. I do have one wild caught female, plus a female and a few males from ebay in my collection.
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Post by fishnbugz on Sept 17, 2018 10:45:47 GMT -8
The rest of my catch, Sept 11-12 2018. Charles Mix Co. South Dakota. Female Parthenice and an awesome F. Arge in upper left row. I apologize for mothing up the catocala thread with other stuff!
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Post by rayrard on Sept 17, 2018 17:09:42 GMT -8
a white witch??
I have had a hell of a time finding parthenice. I see G. virgo commonly and when I go in Aug and Sept to the SAME spots I never see parthenice! Aren't they found in the same places as virgo?
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Post by fishnbugz on Sept 17, 2018 17:50:13 GMT -8
I collect them on the southern edge of South Dakota where the river enters completely into the state, and I try to hit nice weather around Sept 10. I take the lawnmower and pretty much scalp the areas all around my lights, and I spend about an hour a morning(2 lights) searching the grass very carefully around and downwind of the light, shining a strong light in the grass. They want to land horizontal, and they usually hide so well in the grass that I re-check all the most likely spots over and over. I also wonder if they don't fly right up until dawn, because I've found so many seemingly easy to see moths, the 3rd freakin' time through the same area where I found nothing twice before. I use 400 watt MV lights, and often catch a dozen parthenice a year. Virgo, phyllira, virgincula, and arge are all up there and possibly figurata too, and all act much the same. I caught zero of those moths off the sheets last week- they use their camo to hide in the grass.
I think it's an owl moth female, pretty beat up- it barely fit in the trap and was pretty active once I shined a light on it, but actually it was already tattered the first moment I lit/saw it.
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Sept 17, 2018 18:08:44 GMT -8
The threat of the remains of Hurricane Florence will track to the east of Kentucky. As a result, I let my Bait traps hang. I will check those traps tomorrow AM.
The Bait Trap in my yard was loaded on Thursday morning. However, this AM, it was virtually empty.
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Post by fishnbugz on Sept 22, 2018 20:49:33 GMT -8
I caught another nice C. junctura tonight in a yard trap. I've been seeing only a few Catocala meskei for more than a week, but haven't done anything more ambitious than keep the yard traps baited.
I caught a new moth for me/here last week, Phytometra ernestinana. I looked through a lot of wrong ones before I finally found it, the next day, by searching close to the similarly-sized rivula species I was catching a few weeks ago.
Sunira bicolorago showed up tonight, one of the final moths I see each year...
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Post by rayrard on Sept 22, 2018 21:27:09 GMT -8
I have seen a couple concumbens, a retecta, an obscura, and a vidua in the last couple weeks. The weather for tapping is gone for good and lighting will be close behind. Going out is basically looking for Papaipema now, because my hopes for meskei, briseis, semirelicta, and badia are fading.
I can't complain this year as I had some good species, but numbers were probably a bit below average compared to 2015-2106 which was way above average for many species. Maybe a bit better than 2017 though which was below average.
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Post by rayrard on Oct 8, 2018 9:26:20 GMT -8
One cara at bait and a vidua at light last night. Still quite warm, at least for a few more days!
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Oct 27, 2018 10:18:22 GMT -8
A cold front came through early this week and we had a frost on Tuesday. The temperature dipped into the 30 degree mark. I checked my traps and took down seven of them, it included the four I set out four Anaea andria. It has rained almost everyday this week but Thursday. The temperature rose to 66 degrees. I checked my traps this AM, and to my surprise a rather worn Catocala vidua was in a trap I set out at Kleber WMA way back in the early spring. However, there was not much in any of them. I will switch over to Kill Type Bait Traps next week.
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Post by coloradeo on Nov 11, 2018 12:20:55 GMT -8
My Catocala Summary for 2018 Well I had to shovel a second time for the year today so I thought I'd come back to this thread and provide an update on how my Catocala season went this year. This year I had one or two bait traps out in my suburban Colorado backyard nearly every day from July 15 to September 17. I have a bird feeder contraption from WBU that hangs high enough so the raccoons can't get to it and has two hooks. Around July I take down the bird feeders and replace them with bait traps. I ended up "specializing" in an area that included just my backyard this year . I caught a good haul of Catocala, which ended up falling into 5 species and a couple forms. This year my backyard checklist added a species or two, so that was fun. In order of appearance with some date ranges that probably extend beyond what I have noted here, but as I have not spread and ID'd even half of of the Catocala in my freezer yet the dates may just be correct on the front part of the date range noted below. My backyard borders some open space that has cottonwood trees and most yards have aspen trees, so I think many of the species below are probably feeders on those. -- Catocala ultronia, July 15-20 -- Catocala amestris, July 18-20 [new species for me here] -- Catocala junctura, starting July 22 -- Catocala hermia starting August 7 [super abundant every year in my backyard] -- Catocala amatrix, around August 25 and onward [both normal and "selecta" forms... mostly "selecta" as normal seems less common in my backyard but "selecta" is common]; probably if I look back these fly earlier. One thing I will do next year is start earlier. I'm not sure I would have found the small hatching and tight window for C amestris if I had not gotten my bait traps out a week or two earlier this year. I also had a bad spell where I think my bait was bad and I missed a couple weeks while I was experimenting with that. Lastly, if I see anything different as I work through the freezer this winter I'll update this post. From prior years I have noted Catocala luciana, grotiana and semirelicta in my immediate neighborhood so it will be interesting to see if I caught any of those this year, but just have not spread/ID'd them yet. Eric
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