Post by coloradeo on Dec 23, 2018 9:16:31 GMT -8
I had the opportunity to travel to Sanibel, FL, an island just off the coast in Lee county, the week of November 17 to November 24 and did a bit of "passive" moth surveying with traps out each night, but mostly spent time on the beach; here's a quick report.
I used both UV buckets and bait traps. The bucket traps had very little “small stuff” in them, in fact they were mostly empty every day unlike when I collect in summer in Colorado – was a bit surprised at this. However, the UV lights did attract Automeris io every night and some sphinx. The last couple years I have seen Eacles imperialis once each trip and many A io. I mostly struck out in the bait traps despite prepping bait at home and then freezing it to take to Florida, but did catch one beautiful Ascalapha odorata (which Leroy had told me I’d catch – you were right indeed!).
I collected at flowers at dusk and found both Aellopos tantalus and Cautethia grotei, which appear relatively limited to Florida in distribution, so that’s fun for a Colorado guy.
Fun finds in (or more usually near) the UV buckets were two Protambulyx strigilis which again are not something I’ll stumble across in the West. Also caught several slightly rough E. ello, and two female Automeris io – had not caught females in the prior year, but I was better equipped this year too.
Here’s the list of what I have identified so far. I have some less charismatic moths yet in the freezer that I’ll ID and process later this winter.
- Automeris io – very common, with at least one male every night (UV bucket), sometimes several – these seemed less “orange” than last year’s males; two females
- Eacles imperialis – one male at UV bucket
- Ascalapha odorata – one black witch with a bait trap
- Aellopos tantalus – common at dusk visiting flowers during first half of the trip
- Cautethia grotei – common at dusk visiting flowers; also in UV bucket
- Enyo lugubris – common at dusk visiting flowers; pretty sure of this ID, but needs one more review after I get them off the board
- Erinnyis ello – several attracted to UV bucket
- Protambulyx strigilis – two at UV bucket, one A-, one a little rough
- and a few more mixed moths, but yet to be ID'd -- was kind of hoping for more volume than I got in my daily buckets
Bucket setup
A. tantalus
P strigilis
Automeris io Female
E. lugubris -- right?
I used both UV buckets and bait traps. The bucket traps had very little “small stuff” in them, in fact they were mostly empty every day unlike when I collect in summer in Colorado – was a bit surprised at this. However, the UV lights did attract Automeris io every night and some sphinx. The last couple years I have seen Eacles imperialis once each trip and many A io. I mostly struck out in the bait traps despite prepping bait at home and then freezing it to take to Florida, but did catch one beautiful Ascalapha odorata (which Leroy had told me I’d catch – you were right indeed!).
I collected at flowers at dusk and found both Aellopos tantalus and Cautethia grotei, which appear relatively limited to Florida in distribution, so that’s fun for a Colorado guy.
Fun finds in (or more usually near) the UV buckets were two Protambulyx strigilis which again are not something I’ll stumble across in the West. Also caught several slightly rough E. ello, and two female Automeris io – had not caught females in the prior year, but I was better equipped this year too.
Here’s the list of what I have identified so far. I have some less charismatic moths yet in the freezer that I’ll ID and process later this winter.
- Automeris io – very common, with at least one male every night (UV bucket), sometimes several – these seemed less “orange” than last year’s males; two females
- Eacles imperialis – one male at UV bucket
- Ascalapha odorata – one black witch with a bait trap
- Aellopos tantalus – common at dusk visiting flowers during first half of the trip
- Cautethia grotei – common at dusk visiting flowers; also in UV bucket
- Enyo lugubris – common at dusk visiting flowers; pretty sure of this ID, but needs one more review after I get them off the board
- Erinnyis ello – several attracted to UV bucket
- Protambulyx strigilis – two at UV bucket, one A-, one a little rough
- and a few more mixed moths, but yet to be ID'd -- was kind of hoping for more volume than I got in my daily buckets
Bucket setup
A. tantalus
P strigilis
Automeris io Female
E. lugubris -- right?
