evra
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Post by evra on Jul 27, 2021 21:08:37 GMT -8
If it’s only a few days I would say use a sealed container and add some PDCB crystals to inhibit mold growth. Don’t leave them sealed up like that for more than a week or ten days though because the wing joints could rot and then the wings might fall off.
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evra
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Post by evra on Jul 24, 2021 14:02:35 GMT -8
He’s referring to something like this: www.1000bulbs.com/product/89416/PLUSRITE-7230.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIip-Qjdj88QIVCB-tBh20nw0aEAQYASABEgJyAPD_BwEJust to be clear, I’m not recommending that exact one. I don’t have any experience with Plusrite brand products. Lots of vendors make ballast kits like that though. Metal halide ballasts can run metal halide or mercury vapor bulbs. Basically you take a normal outdoor extension cord, cut it in two, and splice the ballast in the middle. The wiring diagram for it comes on the ballast itself. It only involves connecting 4 wires plus a ground with wire nuts. The other 2 things that are more specialized are a mogul base socket and then the actual metal halide or mercury vapor lamp (bulb).
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evra
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Post by evra on Jul 24, 2021 8:00:44 GMT -8
Personally I think 400w is the optimal size. It’s the largest size you can have while running a 1000w generator. The 1000w generators are a lot lighter, quieter, and use significantly less gas than the 2000w generators. If you have a 2000w generator already, then go with a 1000w rig. But if you are starting from scratch, 2 400w lights and a 1000w generator with a couple 15w UV tubes is pretty ideal. And yes, they will land a long ways from the sheet, but that’s why having the UV lights and doing the cycling technique that Bandrow describes is critical. After about 15 minutes of running the UVs only, you’ll have at least twice as many insects on your sheet as when you were running the MVs.
The one big downside of 175 or 250s that I’ve seen is that some of the crepuscular moth species don’t seem to come to them very much. For example I’ve been in spots collecting with 5-6 other collectors and every rig with 400 or 1000w setups got Dolbogene hartwegii but not a single 175 or 250w did.
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evra
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Post by evra on Jul 20, 2021 13:04:38 GMT -8
It’s always been one of my favorite US butterflies. Again, in Arizona it is one of the most common Pierids. Even the pink form is very common, especially in the fall. Some years you can see hundreds or even thousands in one day in some of the canyons when the rabbitbrush or beggarticks are in bloom. The females are especially variable. I’ve seen some that look almost like a female Z. eurydice, with almost an entirely yellow forewing with just the eyespot.
They feed on Dalea, which grows pretty extensively in the deserts, but they cannot survive the winters. Usually I see the first ones fly north from Mexico in February, then there is a summer flight in June/July, then a big flight in September/October before they get killed by frosts in early November.
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evra
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Post by evra on Jul 19, 2021 19:18:48 GMT -8
I wouldn’t recommend coming out this year. Although the monsoons have been extremely strong so far in July, the collecting this past weekend was absolutely terrible. I didn’t see a single Saturniid, which is highly unusual, and only a handful of Sphingids and Arctiids, and only about 10 Chrysinas. I think it has to do with the fact that 2020 had basically no summer monsoon rain, and in 2019 the rain that came was in late August and September, but the moth flights were at their normal time in late July, so it was too late to support the 1st instars. Also there was very weak winter rains too so I’m sure that didn’t help.
It reminds me a lot of 2011, which was a bad collecting year with a very strong monsoon, but then 2012 and 2013 ended up being banner years for just about everything.
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evra
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Post by evra on Jul 18, 2021 23:48:36 GMT -8
I’ve reared them on Schinus terebinthifolia with great success. I also think they’ll take most sumac (Rhus spp.). I started some on Rhus lancea once and they were doing well until I switched them to Schinus. In the wild they feed primarily on Gossypium thurberi. I bet they would take Liquidambar or Juglans as well but I’m not 100% sure. They don’t seem picky at all. They eat huge amounts and grow extremely fast so be careful how many you try to rear. 40 last instar C. splendens ate about the same amount of host plant as 60-80 Hyalophora larvae.
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evra
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Post by evra on May 31, 2021 8:39:16 GMT -8
I haven’t had many issues with these. I have 3 spinning cocoons right now and 2 last instar larvae. The rest have already spun.
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evra
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Post by evra on Apr 23, 2021 12:13:14 GMT -8
There’s a species in Arizona, Cotinis impia which is very dark blue, almost black. But it’s diurnal and I’ve only seen it in the day time in the monsoon season.
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evra
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Post by evra on Apr 15, 2021 11:56:35 GMT -8
I’m rearing about the same number of H. euryalus from a female I collected a few weeks ago on cuttings of Brazilian pepper tree. Currently they are L2 and it is quite easy and basically the same as rearing H. gloveri, a species I have reared many times before. It’s pretty much just a matter of keeping them well ventilated, and on fresh cuttings. Crowding isn’t really an issue if the humidity is low. About 20-25% wouldn’t accept the host, but the rest are doing well.
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evra
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Post by evra on Apr 7, 2021 11:55:13 GMT -8
MV bulbs have to cool down before they can be turned on again. It’s normal for self-ballasted and nonself-ballasted bulbs.
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evra
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Post by evra on Mar 23, 2021 14:05:05 GMT -8
In my experience rearing C. splendens is that when they are ready to pupate, they come down off the plant and start to wander, they secrete a small amount of a sticky translucent substance at the end of their abdomen and then they start looking for a pupation site. I put mine in a 5 gal bucket of regular bare potting soil and some of the larvae started wandering for days. I got concerned that they wouldn’t burrow and pupate, so I put a rock and some twigs on the surface of the soil sticking out a little bit. As soon as I did this they immediately burrowed and pupated next to the rock. I think this behavior may be an instinct not to pupate on open, barren ground, so that when the adult emerges, it has something to climb up on and suitably expand its wings. They burrow down about 6-8 inches.
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evra
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Post by evra on Mar 13, 2021 20:05:19 GMT -8
One of the biggest issues with Alaska is that roads are actually kind of rare. Most travel is done by float plane, and to a lesser extent, boat. Distances are vast as well. A lot of the areas in south Alaska are very swampy as well. The last time I was fishing there I ran into a moose in the dense forest a couple of times. Fortunately they were moose and not brown bears. I thought that moth collecting might be interesting, but you only get about 0.5 hours of darkness per night when the sun goes behind Denali so I don’t really know how effective your lights could be.
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evra
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Post by evra on Feb 13, 2021 20:16:00 GMT -8
Out in the West many of the host plants aren’t deciduous so it’s hard to find cocoons. The species I’ve had the most luck with is Agapema anona on Condalia globbosa. The population density per plant is high and the parasitism rate is low. Usually I can get 20-30 viable cocoons after searching only 10 or so plants in about an hour. Its cousin, A. homogena, is harder to find cocoons of but not that hard. The key with them is to find a host plant and then look at the base of any Ponderosa pines growing nearby. They love to spin in the bark of the Ponderosa no more than 2-3 feet off the ground.
As far as H. euryalus goes, the males seem to be reasonably common all over S. California in the spring. I usually get at least 1 any time I collect in the coastal chaparral between April and June, usually while I’m out looking for other stuff. A of couple years ago I had 10-12 fresh males by 10 PM at my lights.
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evra
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Post by evra on Jan 24, 2021 11:33:52 GMT -8
Any Megathymus for butterflies, and any dayflying Hemileuca or Calosaturnia for moths.
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evra
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Post by evra on Jan 24, 2021 11:31:30 GMT -8
SE Arizona, they were all over one year. A. odorata is usually much more common, to the point where I don’t bother collecting them unless it’s a very nice specimen.
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