AZ monsoon season update

[nightwings]

I have settled into my RV for the next three months and plan on collecting Sta. Cruz and Pima counties and when the monsoons arrive. I will post updates on weather as changes occur in anticipation of the seasonal emergence. Right now it is breezy, usually clear and very low relative humidity (5-15%RH). Most of the storms are moving up the Mexican Sierras more to the east and primarily entering the US through New Mexico, east of my collecting areas.

[exoticimports]

What an adventure! You’ll get more in one night than I get all season.

[coloradeo]

Please do keep us updated about you your findings. I think there are a lot of us who would love to see the season through your eyes.

[nightwings]

Update: Still very arid but first thunder and cumulonimbus blowing around Santa Ritas and Patagonias in PM, little rain made it to the ground and mucho wind! Forecast showing cooling and increased chances of real storms next Tuesday-Thursday, so maybe hopeful. Satellite showing some storm development in Sierras along Sonora-Chihuahua border.

[nightwings]

Update: Big changes with cloudy days and afternoon storms. Scattered but heavy local rainfall over the Santa Ritas, Huachucas, Patagonias, and western Atascosa highlands (from radar reports). Witnessed heavy rains between Green Valley and Nogales along I19 and coming over the SRs. No reports of insects yet. May give collecting a try next week if conditions continue. Temperatures in early am have been around 71F and RH between 84 and 94%, a big change from the single digits to mid 20% last week. Cooler days with the cloud cover also.

[LEPMAN]

Nice, keep us updated!

[nightwings]

After six days of rain storms in the area, I set up my lights in Harshaw Canyon, Santa Cruz County in the area known as the Meadow. It was touch and go as we drove through an hour of heavy rain on the way there but it stopped raining soon after arrival and held off for the rest of the night. It was very humid and cool but the winds remained calm. This was my earliest start ever in SE Arizona, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It turned out to be pretty decent with lots of bugs coming in and seven saturnid species and at least eleven sphingid species. It appears to be a little early for some species that usually have been showing in larger numbers but better than the last two years. Most specimens were very fresh except the two male A. oculea I saw, which had a lot of bird/bat damage. Only two male A. patagoniensis came in, no females but one female and four male A.c. pamina came in, the most I have ever seem at Harshaw. Also a couple of male and one female A. h. iris, 9 or 10 nice C. s. splendens (both sexes), probably two dozen Eacles oslari of both sexes and varied color phases, and five or six Sys. hubbardi males. Not any Sys. montana or raspa, H.c. gloveri, or E. calleta.
Rest of the week looks like it will be a little drier and clearer. I plan on trying again tomorrow in a different location.

[nightwings]

Box Canyon last night had pretty clear skies, calm to light breezes and moderate humidity. There was rain the night before so hopes were high. Another local collector joined me and we had three lights set up. It started pretty slow with only a couple of female Sys. montana, one female hubbardi, one A. h. iris female and a scattering of C.s. splendens males. After 2400 E. oslari, more splendens, hubbardi, montana, one male oculea, and two male pamina came in. Most of the moths were very fresh. The majority of moths were sphingids and I counted seven species (not really a Manduca expert, so maybe more), but typhon, achemon, florestans (very common), mucosa (most. abundant), H. lineata, a couple of dolli, quinquemaculata, Ishtar, falco, and occidentalis were notable and shortly after 0300 I counted 250 sphinx around my light alone. The season is young but hopeful of more rain but the forecast is looking a little dry this week.

[mswisher]

I will be coming down 26-31 July.  I am a little worried that I will be too late and also the full moon, but my schedule isn't very flexible this year.  Keep the updates coming and maybe we will run into each other.  Any one else have plans for SE AZ?

[nightwings]

I went to Gardner Canyon last night and set up two lights. The skies cleared shortly after dark and the moon is waning gibbous so may have had a slowing effect on the moths coming in. It was a bit slow, especially the first half. a lot of sphingids and few females. Did see my first Anisota oslari female and H. gloveri male and small number of male oculea. At least 10 c. splendens came in including three females, second most I have seen and five E. oslari including one female. One oddly marked male oslari. Only one Automeris came to the lights, a skinny female. The Syssphinx hubbardi and montana were out in pretty impressive numbers including some really heavy female montana. It was fairly dry and looks to remain that way, except for a few localized storms, until Friday through Monday. Also takes with a couple of moth-ers from further up the canyon who did not see many splendens, and no oculea, but many E. oslari.
California Gulch was forecasting heavy rain so we postponed, but heard the collecting was skimpy but a few R. cincta showed up.

[nightwings]

Catch-Up report. A very busy week trying to reorganize and downsize my lighting equipment, dealing with headstock labeling and ova collecting.

25 July: Back to Harshaw Canyon with Jim M. and my loyal wife. There were heavy rains in the Patagonias-Santa Ritas earlier but settled down by 1800. We had three lights up along the Meadow area. Some large sphingids like occidentalis, typhon, florestans, along with Saturniid females of splendens, patagoniensis, and montana in early hours. 2200 to 2300, a couple of female montana, splendens, and male E. oslari, hubbardi, one male raspa. Light rain until midnight but stopped and the cloud cover remained to block the waxing moon. Sysspninx hubbardi, montana, and a female raspa came in along with male oculeas. Not a single hesselorum or pamina came to the lights, but eight male patagoniensis total came in, mostly very fresh. Some male but no female E. oslari, one more female splendens The big surprise were the raspa, with about 30 showing up including two females.

26 July: due to high numbers of fresh males and the heavy rains, we (Jim and I) decided to try Harshaw Canyon again, this time with only two lights. After a clear, dry day, the weather felt good for us but not sure about the moths. Early moths included male E. oslari, splendens of both sexes, a couple more female raspa, a female montana, and a female patagoniensis. Later on, we caught a few male raspa, E. oslari, oculea, montana, and hubbardi. No female E. oslari or gloveri of either sex.

28 July: Took a female calleta up near the mouth of Madera Canyon to see if she would call any males in. She was set out about 1030 but never seemed to extend her scent gland and not much was happening. Around 1045 my wife said " is this what we are looking for?" There was what proved to be a fresh male calleta fluttering gently around her (my wife, not the female moth). I caught the male and dumped him in with the female who looked pretty sleepy. SO the male settles down for a nap too and I am thinking that this is not like all of my other calleta experiences. But about 30 minutes later they had coupled so we sat around and let things progress for about 45 minutes before we had to leave to run errands. The rest of the story is that the moths separated earlier than expected, THEN the female decided to start calling, very odd behavior. She did go on to deposit ova for the next 36 hours, so now waiting to see if they really were fertilized. This morning it appears that some larvae may be beginning to chew their way out, so keeping my fingers crossed.

30 July: Decide to try Pena Blanca Canyon, which has not produced much for me since the big fire back in 2010 (?). A pleasant surprise awaited me. The weather had been hot and dry but early on lightning and thunder surrounded the area until midnight. However it was very humid in the canyon and the clouds helped hide the near full moon, and I set up two lights in the canyon. By 2030 females of h. iris, montana, and hubbardi came to the lower light. Around 2040 a fresh breeze came up but the first female oculea of the last two years appeared. Good start. I think the breeze kept the numbers down a bit, but male E. oslari were coming in with quite a few other insects. The upper light had a number of male splendens and E. oslari, along with montana of both sexes by 2145. By 2200 the breeze dropped and the lower light produced more E. oslari, splendens of both sexes, and a female A.c. pamina. Between 2300 and 2400, three additional female oculea and five males, splendens of both sexes, E. oslari (male only, of course), hubbardi and montana. The remainder of the night produced mainly males of the same species, except for the addition of 2 male gloveri a two male cincta, and one last female iris.
That was the biggest showing of females for me in a long time, just wish I could have seen some female E. oslari and cincta. Nine saturnid species, total.

[rayrard]

Nice reports! Did you see any interesting sphingids besides the usual common species yet? Did you come across Dysschema?

Last year was my first trip and we did very well with numbers but had few females of anything besides C. splendens and a few montana. The oculea and Automeris were all males that we took. It wasn't a time thing because we stayed late mots nights. We were there around this time of year too (late July). We did hit Madera more often and Pena Blanca on one night. We missed the Huachucas and Patagonia because of rain.

We also completely missed S. raspa, Anisota oslari, and E. calletta last year for whatever reason, despite strong flights of sphinx and the other saturniids. We also couldn't get up to the Onion Saddle in the Chiricahuas because rain washed out the streams.

Something to aim for another season though.

[kentuckymothman]

Thanks for the update, sounds like you had a good night.

[nightwings]

I haven't seen any of the less common that I am aware of. I did see one terlooi at Harshaw and heard that S. elsa was flying in the Dragoons last week. I have not seen a D. howardii this season although I saw a decent number of males and one female last year, mainly at Copper Cyn. They have not showed up for me in harsh this year, usually dependable place. I did hear that some were taken at Copper this year, including one female. I have seen good variety but nothing too exciting. My most unusual was an A. cingulata.

[nightwings]

I believe I may have made my final collecting trip for this season. It has been pretty dry and very hot, so combined with the full moon earlier, I had curtailed my trips. I set up two lights in Pena Blanca Canyon until 0340 this morning. It started with breezes and some scattered showers. It was a much slower start than other outings and Sphingid diversity was way down and Saturniid numbers were also low. here is a copy of the high points sent to other collectors.
We headed back to Pena Blanca for one last try for cincta since I saw a couple of males a week ago. The moon was much better we had some early light showers and breezes, but it eventually settled down< all moths were in much fewer numbers and diversity, especially the sphingids. I ran both lights until after 3:30 and only saw two male E. Oslari, 8-10 female Anisota oslari, two male splendens, less than a dozen montana but about 20 times the number of Sys. hubbardi, a worn pair of H.c. gloveri, around a dozen male oculea, and four more fat female oculea. I moved three away from the lights and kept one because it was so perfect. Also got skinny and worn E calleta female, and one last male A. c. pamina. There was a group of young biologists collecting all over and they found a unicorn mantis on one of my lights, only the second I have ever seen (Harshaw Canyon, 2013). Time to focus on rearing now.