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Post by boghaunter1 on Jul 28, 2019 11:10:20 GMT -8
Hello "Cat" Collectors,
Very slow start for "Cats" up here in central, NE Saskatchewan, Canada. The 1st Catocala of the season finally showed up in an M.V. trap on 27th July - a single fresh male C. unijuga. Another lone specimen of the same sp. showed up again today in another B.L. trap. Wow... really unbelievable how many Catocala spp. & how early they appear in the states!
John K.
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Post by fishnbugz on Jul 28, 2019 13:02:15 GMT -8
This was what I caught in the river bluffs and at home July 18...I have not had the time to get back after it, and I fear it's probably too late now. I had a Catocala mira in there somewhere, which is another new species for me. The Black Witch is the first I've ever caught in Nebraska. 10 days later and it appears to have slowed down quite a bit both at home and in South Dakota, I saw a few grynea and ultronia in SD the last few days, and I had one battered illecta and a single meskei show up at the lights. The grammia virgo were still common up there until the last night, when there were only a few. I put one bait trap right close to the camper and only a few feet off the ground, and had a very nice Catocala luciana show up in this trap during the day- I have not found any reason to put traps high in the trees in this area, and generally I place the traps where I can grab the bottom and clamp it shut when I get within reach of it, to keep all of the catch inside. The highest I ever place a trap is about 10 feet, and in these cases I try to quickly and smoothly lower the trap to where I can reach and close the bottom. The best trap I had on the 18th had about 35 catocala in it, although not all were wanted/collected...I had it placed where I could reach the top of the trap, and the opening was less than 3 feet from the ground... I had only a single minuta in the traps at home last night, the form with the dark basal bars. I'm not sure what happened to all the meskei, innubens, and neogama I was starting to see last week, they should be going strong for a few weeks but they kind of quit showing up these last few nights. Catocala mira Epione Whitneyii Minuta
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Post by rayrard on Jul 29, 2019 15:26:06 GMT -8
Went MV lighting in Canaan last night and had C. concumbens - 4 fresh out C. serena - 2 C. coccinata - 1
We went tapping again in 93 degree weather in New Haven. C. amica - lots C. lineella - lots C. ilia - 2 C. palaeogama - 4 C. ultronia - 3 C. neogama - 4-5 C. parta - 1 C. coccinata - 1 UnIDed black HW species - 1
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Post by rayrard on Jul 29, 2019 15:33:19 GMT -8
Catocala species tally so far between VA, CT, Mass, and PA
Catocala amica C. andromedae C. coccinata C. concumbens C. connubialis C. crataegi C. dejecta C. epione C. flebilis C. ilia C. innubens C. lacrymosa C. lineella C. marmorata C. meskei C. micronympha C. muliercula C. nebulosa C. neogama C. palaeogama C. parta C. residua C. sappho C. serena C. ultronia
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Post by mothman27 on Jul 30, 2019 5:49:26 GMT -8
I've been busy lately and have neglected making bait for my traps. I got a new species for me on Sunday tree tapping, I think meskei, very fresh. I was mostly preoccupied with the abundance of P. glaucus and P. cresphontes. Going on vacation on Friday to western NC hoping to set up a sheet and bait trap, wish me luck! Possibly tree tap.
Silkmoths this year have been amazing with at least two of every species I have found in previous years. Recently I got a pair of S. bicolor orange form at the sheet. Managed to get 130 promethea to cocoons and 45 polyphemus as well as several other species.
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Post by jhyatt on Jul 30, 2019 11:08:02 GMT -8
I'm giving up and putting my traps away for the season. Getting very few Catocalas, and have had traps torn up by raccoons twice, and twice filled them up with white-faced hornets. This just ain't the year for me to be baiting moths! jh
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Post by fishnbugz on Jul 30, 2019 13:58:54 GMT -8
I've been asked about my homemade traps a few times before so I'm gonna share a few pictures and info; I'm not as experienced as some on here, but I have had several seasons to learn what works best for me in my area. I originally looked online, finding Leroy's posts, Kons and Borth's stuff online, and Vernon Brou's posts very helpful in getting ideas, forming a plan, and getting started. First pics are of a slotted pan design. These are slower to make but very effective. I'd recommend plastic rather than the aluminum shown here, it get's cold by the end of catocala season here and the catch diminishes when they gotta enter through the cold metal. The mesh fabric shown here is a pretty good trap material and comes from a tack-in door screen with magnetic clasps...but I repurposed it and took off anything I didn't want for the trap. The underside of the pan. It is fitted fairly tight into a plastic base, I think I repurposed this from a lazy-susan type thing to be impervious to weather. I align the slots with the bottom of the plastic so the moths have easy entry into the trap. In making the slots you'll want to drill each end at the proper size, then grind or cut out the slot. My traps are started from a single metal ring, 14 inches to 16 inches in diameter in most cases. I like fairly heavy steel or copper wire that will not mis-shape easily to make the top ring, but lots of things could be substituted, basically anything that will keep the shape open. Metal brake line makes a pretty good top ring too. From there we make a hanger and put on the mesh. Some of the materials I've used for trap mesh are fiberglass screen, cloth screen from those door screens, tent windows/zippers if you retire an old tent, lace-type curtains- I'm basically always looking for trap materials and stockpiling when they're cheap or free. I've found hot glue to be effective and much faster than sewing to put the seams together, and while zippers are nice they also add cost; I often just glue the fabric seam mostly closed, and leave a gap to fit my collecting cup and hand through. When the trap's hanging the opening will be tight and thus, closed. Here you can see a seam I use to remove insects instead of having a zipper, I've had zero issues with escape in this manner... The top of the trap can be about anything tough enough to hold a moth. I originally made the first half-dozen or so traps with plexiglass tops- I was under the impression that seeing the sky was important to getting them into the trap(not true). I used black-out curtains with rubber lining for some traps, and anything I leave out in daylight I have at least some sort of darkened area at the top to encourage moths to hide there. I like to hang edges over the side a bit to give darkness/hiding spots. Keeping rain out of bait is a nice feature with the plexiglass and the rubber fabrics, but I have some traps where it's just an old cloth cut to seal the opening and safety pinned or glued in place. Here you can see a top made with the rubber lined curtain, and the twine I use to hang it over a low branch. The fastest, easiest trap design for me to make uses plywood for the bottom and bait tray, attached to the mesh with a staplegun. I match the size of the bottom to the top ring, and I cut a hole out of the center to fit the lid of an ice cream pail. The lid is the bait pan, and I use little eyed screws to hang the bait tray from three points using wire or twine. I can grab the whole thing and squeeze it shut very easily to prevent escapes, and even when I do night checks I have few problems with escapees. This pic is the underside of a bottom assembly, I often bevel the hole with the table saw(NOTE: very dangerous if you're stupid!) and sand it a little so it fits the lid very well when clamped shut, and this bevel also gives me a little longer deck inside the trap to help keep the moths in. The plywood is repurposed, as almost all my bug equipment is. Eye-screws are placed so as to be clamped shut without interference. I commonly leave plenty of room for insects to enter the trap; this also makes it easier for them to exit, but it gives me more chance of success when that super-rare Owl moth or Black Witch comes along. I check frequently at night because I want to limit escapes while still keeping my traps very easy entry, and I am after super-nice specimens so I don't like making them squeeze to get in...but I do at times tighten things up, especially early season when there are lots of smaller catocala. I very rarely go high in the trees, mostly I count on the bait to bring them down to my level. Here is a trap in a big black locust tree, set within easy reach. The fabric is the window from an old screen tent and was free, making the total cost of this trap about 57 cents...though it is a bit stretched out and ugly Catocala luciana from S. Dakota
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Post by LEPMAN on Jul 30, 2019 16:17:10 GMT -8
Nice and thanks for sharing, I too like making my own bait traps/having them made for me. In China it is very cheap to buy materials and have a tailor shop make them for me. I would just bring them a sample and all I would have to do was thread the wire into the trap. I started making my traps out of tulle fabric because they were incredibly cheap but they also only lasted about a year of careful use(if the wasps didn’t get in) then I started using the construction barrier cloth screens used at construction sites and I have never had to try any other materials. I still have yet to find a base design that is effective in the USA with Catocala às they seem to escape from my flat bottom traps. I very much like your idea and will be trying a similar design in the future!!
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Post by fishnbugz on Jul 30, 2019 18:57:56 GMT -8
I mostly pick up the plywood used in my trap bottoms from the wood/tree dump in the next town over. If someone dumps a pallet with a 1/2 sheet of plywood, that's bases for quite a few traps. If they toss a dresser, I smash the drawers apart and take all the thin plywood pieces for the back of bug cases. I've got a big garage and basement to store crap until I need it, and each winter I upgrade a few traps and build a few insect storage cases with the junk I've gathered up.
Bug season is very limited here by the cold weather, and the important part of Catocala trapping season happens fast here. I can maximize my catch by running lots of traps and lots of areas when timing and conditions are good, but it ends up that I get very little actual use out of the traps; maybe 5-6 nights a year or so I run 20+ traps. It makes little sense to have a large budget tied up in it from my perspective, but I can get quite a bit done on very little cost this way.
I have a variety of lengths of suitable string on the traps and some just have wire hooks at the top that I can secure to branches. Some have weights or railroad spikes that I can toss over branches, others I find a stick or rock to tie on the string. I sort them into general types and then choose a suitable trap for the site I've picked. I generally put at least two traps together in an area to increase the amount of bait scent in the area. Especially on breezy nights I like sites that have vegetation and terrain to "hold" the scent of the bait better; for example I hang one in a big blue spruce in the yard, about 10 feet up and close to the trunk. On a good night I can shine my light up and see how the bait is wafting through the branches drawing moths in. This is more effective in the Nebraska wind than a trap hanging directly in the wind. Wind direction affects trap placement- I want my traps upwind of the hostplants if possible, and I may skip over spots I'd otherwise hang a trap if the wind is blowing wrong.
Traps are set within easy walking distance of the road, and the vehicle serves as base of operations. If a trap has too many fluttering moths to handle, I'll hang it in the car and run the A/C on it for a while to settle things down before I get to assessing the catch. I normally freeze instead of using a killing jar, so on these excursions I put the catch in individual lidded cups and ice them down in coolers. I expect in most cases to have less scale loss and damage this way, but if a moth refuses to settle down in the cup they can end up less than perfect. If like usual they stay still until the cold takes effect, they come out of this method looking very nice. Only one moth to a cup, I'll have to show an example of the cups I use but basically once a big catocala is in there it can't fly out or really do much damage to their wings.
If you're having escapees, I close up the trap tight to the bait pan on one side, maybe offset the pan and only let them enter through one side of the trap...this reduces the amount of area they can escape through and should reduce escapees a bit. The larger the diameter of the trap, the more distance you can have between the bait opening and the wall of the trap; the greater this distance, the less likely that a moth will hit the hole and escape.
I've found these traps effective for killing flies too, I just spray the upper surfaces with a "bug bomb" spray can, and close the entrance down tight so only small stuff can get in. The insecticide stays effective for a long time, the flies get up there and it kills them. I was pretty surprised to find a trap I'd sprayed the previous summer still killing bugs the next year when I put it out, and I now keep any traps I've sprayed separate for flies only. Flies can be bad here though!
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Post by bugboys3 on Jul 31, 2019 9:36:29 GMT -8
July has been a very productive month for me. The last week my trap has had 20-30 Catocala in it each morning. My list includes 21 species all from the same location. The list is from first caught to most recent.
Catocala minuta C. ilia C. coccinata C. grynea C. blandula C. serena C. unijuga C. crataegi C. ilia form normani C. ultronia C. ultronia form celia C. ilia form conspicua C. meskei C. insolabilis C. parta C. judith C. paleogama C. subnata C. neogama C. innubens C. nebulosa C. cerogama C. obscura C. piatrix
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Post by LEPMAN on Aug 2, 2019 8:07:26 GMT -8
Interesting use of ice to cool down/ freeze moths. When I trapped in Asia my traps were often overwhelming due to the amount of specimens inside so I came up with a little contraction. I would get a few grams of dry ice and a bottle of the highest concentration of EtOH I could find and combine them in a squirt mist bottle. The results were incredible, I could squirt my chilled EtOH bottle into the trap and specimens would begin to fall. Just remember to make a hole in the bottle otherwise it will burst, also if the mist bottle uses a membrane pump instead of a piston it won’t work with the cold temp.
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Post by fishnbugz on Aug 4, 2019 9:06:35 GMT -8
The stuff I do works here in Nebraska and South Dakota, but the default position here is destroy the habitat and put it into cornstalks...or if it's too steep they graze cattle on it. There is very little forest or natural prairie, and 90% of NE land use is agriculture- that's an actual statistic, not my guessing. So, there's not going to be too many moths to handle in a trap very often, but the few times there are loads of moths I may have problems dealing. It takes a lot of containers to hold my catch on ice on a good night, but I only have about 2 "good" nights per year here. I ain't too interested in ethyl acetate kill jars though, all I see is flopping around losing scales, which pretty much horrifies me. It takes too much time to get results, and I've had moths come back to life after appearing dead and being pinned. I have small grandkids right next door and probably can't even get cyanide so I stick to the freezer. I've tried injecting alcohol and ethyl acetate and ended up with darkened thorax or wing staining damage; at this point if I have access to a freezer that is the only method I'll use.
Ok back to the field reports- Amatrix is now out, neogama was not common this year and appears to be done already here at home. I went to the camper for a couple nights, but not a lot of other catocala showed up other than the regulars. I did get one more whitneyii. There were still a few apantesis virgo showing up at the lights, best year I ever had for that species...I almost totally missed June and a lot of the other arctids up there this season, the only one probable now is parthenice in late Aug/sept.
I had a cara in a trap last night, and meskei, amatrix, and still one ultronia all the way into august this year...but I think I'm mostly done for this year, I'll keep running the yard traps but I don't really expect any more new-to-me stuff. I got tied up with other crap too much in July and probably missed out on a few targets, most notably coccinata and abbreviatella, but I'm pretty satisfied with 2019. If I'm lucky I might still get junctura, relicta, or a surprise. I haven't seen piatrix yet for 2019 but don't care either way with that one.
I fumbled about with the cara, and it flew out next to my arm and escaped while I was reaching into the trap. It landed on top of the trap, buzzed around my headlight a bit, landed on top of my head for a moment, buzzed the light a little more then back onto the trap...I finally got it into a cup, after a few tense moments. Cara is a favorite of mine because a hand-caught specimen was one of the very first catocala I added to my collection, and I knew it was around here, but it proved very elusive. I finally started getting a few nice ones when I started trapping years later, but it seems they don't often come to the light.
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Post by rayrard on Aug 4, 2019 12:24:43 GMT -8
Went to a peak with abundant scrub oak in NW CT and lucked out and found Catocala herodias
C. herodias - 2 C. similis - 2 C. praeclara - 1
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Post by Jonn on Aug 4, 2019 14:54:28 GMT -8
Went to set up my traps where i saw the epione and ended up catching my first ever ulalume (2nd Md record, 1st was in 1979?) on a nearby tree
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Post by rayrard on Aug 5, 2019 20:08:17 GMT -8
baited locally and it was very slow but the ones that showed up were good
C. cara - 1st of the year C. maestosa - 3rd CT record and 1st of 2019 C. nebulosa - 1
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