Post by boghaunter1 on Mar 20, 2011 14:02:29 GMT -8
Hello all,
Around 11:00 a.m. on 08 Aug. 2000 I collected a fairly fresh male specimen of Erinnyis alope resting quietly on a vertical corner post of my outdoor porch. It was in surprisingly good condition, except for tattered wing tips, total wingspan 9.7cm (3.75"). Soon after I showed the mounted specimen to my late friend Ron Hooper; he did some research (checking provincial collections & national collection in Ottawa) & discovered that it was a new record for Canada. It is a Neotropical (Latin Am. & W. Indies) stray way out of it's normal range being found rarely in Florida with a few strays as far north as New Jersey & Kansas (from Covell's "Field Guide to Moths of Eastern N. Am.). Ron said other Erinnyis spp. have strayed as far north as southern Ontario but no E. alope have been collected anywhere else in Canada.
It is quite extraordinary that this large sphinx moth strayed this far north to 52N, 103W to end up in N.E. Sask. (I also collected a Black Witch moth in my yd. a few yrs. ago!); equally extraordinary is the fact that I collected it during the daytime where it had come to rest in my porch! Of all the hundreds of farm yds. scattered throughout Sask. it ended up in mine by pure accident alone...and I'm a bug collector who could preserve it for science...what luck! Another possiblity...perhaps it may have hopped a ride on a produce truck from the southern states? Who knows?
Sure goes to show that extraordinary insects can show up anywhere & at anytime, a large part of what makes this collecting hobby so interesting.
John K.
Around 11:00 a.m. on 08 Aug. 2000 I collected a fairly fresh male specimen of Erinnyis alope resting quietly on a vertical corner post of my outdoor porch. It was in surprisingly good condition, except for tattered wing tips, total wingspan 9.7cm (3.75"). Soon after I showed the mounted specimen to my late friend Ron Hooper; he did some research (checking provincial collections & national collection in Ottawa) & discovered that it was a new record for Canada. It is a Neotropical (Latin Am. & W. Indies) stray way out of it's normal range being found rarely in Florida with a few strays as far north as New Jersey & Kansas (from Covell's "Field Guide to Moths of Eastern N. Am.). Ron said other Erinnyis spp. have strayed as far north as southern Ontario but no E. alope have been collected anywhere else in Canada.
It is quite extraordinary that this large sphinx moth strayed this far north to 52N, 103W to end up in N.E. Sask. (I also collected a Black Witch moth in my yd. a few yrs. ago!); equally extraordinary is the fact that I collected it during the daytime where it had come to rest in my porch! Of all the hundreds of farm yds. scattered throughout Sask. it ended up in mine by pure accident alone...and I'm a bug collector who could preserve it for science...what luck! Another possiblity...perhaps it may have hopped a ride on a produce truck from the southern states? Who knows?
Sure goes to show that extraordinary insects can show up anywhere & at anytime, a large part of what makes this collecting hobby so interesting.
John K.
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& post a photo here...; Yes hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico can certainly blow insects far off course - my Black Witch moth appeared the week following a huge hurricane in the Gulf; very strong S & SE winds had blown nearly continulously for the week prior to the B.W's appearance. Even though I am way up here in the "north" I now always keep an eye out for ununsual bugs throughout the collecting season, especially following prolonged periods of strong southerly winds.