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Post by rayrard on Dec 17, 2021 23:18:10 GMT -8
The atocala are surely one of the prizes of the east. The west has a bunch of rare species too but they are not as distinctive as the rare eastern species. You don't see ulalume, insoliabilis, angusi, sappho, marmorata, and myristica very often, and there are a lot of small yellow ones that are very rare. I think myristica is similar in rarity to atocala but they live in different regions. Species I have encountered that may be considered prizes by people not in my area are things like Catocala jair and herodias. Of course imagine going to Asia and looking for Catocala there where there are species few people have collected.
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Post by rayrard on Dec 17, 2021 12:49:48 GMT -8
Vernon, what are the most obvious differences between ilia & umbrosa? inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/153175621/original.jpgCheck this image for a line up of two dark ilia compared to an umbrosa from CT My first umbrosa was quite like a very unmarked brown ilia but it is noticeably plain and uncontrasting. Ilia will usually have lots of white and black markings and outlines to the reniform spot, and even the satanas forms are grayer to blacker. Umbrosa is very brown overall and is found only locally in sand barrens/pine plains in the northeast. On iNaturalist I see the umbrosa records show up a little earlier than ilia in Texas, where most of the umbrosa records I see are from.
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Post by rayrard on Dec 16, 2021 19:54:48 GMT -8
Still so many of these I haven't seen alive. The southern "small species" seem to be the most difficult to find since they don't fly all summer like the large species, and they seem to be very localized in range and flight period
Catocala consors (J.E. Smith, 1797) Catocala robinsonii Grote, 1872 Catocala angusi Grote, 1876 Catocala atocala Brou, 1985 Catocala ulalume Strecker, 1878 Catocala messalina Guenée, 1852 Catocala louiseae Bauer, 1965 Catocala bastropi Kons and Borth Catocala miranda H. Edwards, 1881 Catocala orba Kusnezov, 1903 Catocala pretiosa Lintner, 1876 Catocala texarkana Brower, 1976 Catocala lincolnana Brower, 1976 Catocala titania Dodge, 1900 Catocala charlottae Brou, 1988 Catocala olivia H. Edwards, 1880 Catocala clintonii Grote, 1864
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Post by rayrard on Dec 16, 2021 6:21:52 GMT -8
I think my full tally of Catocala species in the little state of CT is 45, with only a few options for future finds. I anticipate eventually finding some southern migrants and maybe some rare ones like pretiosa, badia, and briseis. Getting 50 species in CT is probably gonna fall short.
I ran into myristica on my southern roadtrip this past year, along with sappho and marmorata. I got one of each but better than none of each.
I would love to get into the midwest and deep south for some of the super rare ones like lincolnana, louisae, atocala, whitneyi, luctuosa, miranda, and orba.
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Post by rayrard on Nov 13, 2021 17:43:10 GMT -8
The Yale collection has a lot of Charles Remington material from when he was serving in the Philippines in 1944. He was working as an entomologist with the military, no doubt on controlling disease, and lots of the material is larval mosquitoes and biting flies. Some of the labels have "collected in bomb crater" or "shell crater" on them.
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Post by rayrard on Oct 11, 2021 18:07:58 GMT -8
caja is one of my grail moths, but I never expected it to be such. I lived in SE NY growing up and never saw it, and of course never saw it in the south (coast to mountains) where I collected for years. When I moved to CT I thought I'd see it for sure as all the old books said it lived here. I never saw a hint of it or A. parthenos and there are no records for CT for either Arctia species since that platform started in 2016. I have collected in CT from the mountains to the coast. The Yale collection has records of caja but they are all old for CT. Even trying to get up to the Berkshires of Massachusetts didn't get me any caja, which always seemed to stay a 3 hour drive away from me in Vermont or far upstate NY. I finally collected A. parthenos in Maine a couple years ago, but I would probably have to go back there later in August to get caja.
Maybe it's climate change or habitat modification but I am still puzzled that a generalist Arctiid is so rare. Similarly I have never encountered G. parthenice in CT despite G. virgo being quite common in the right habitats. I am certainly in the field in Aug and Sept when parthenice flies. I have even found a second brood virgo in September!
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Post by rayrard on Oct 11, 2021 17:43:11 GMT -8
the northeast is one of the Catocala hotspots, but I think with concerted effort and light/bait attempts you should be able to get 30-40 species per season anywhere in the east. Of course you have to target some specialized habitats and get lucky on a few species
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Post by rayrard on Oct 6, 2021 18:58:03 GMT -8
added a late C. relicta to get to 41 species. Only worn retecta, vidua, ilia, and habilis left but also had a late September serena
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Post by rayrard on Sept 9, 2021 19:16:04 GMT -8
I'd give my left nut for briseis in CT.
The summit of Sleeping Giant where I had 18 species in August has declined to only 6 species the other night (palaeogama, ilia, habilis, vidua, retecta, nebulosa) and only singletons of most of them. The heavy rains and cooler temps have slowed the Catocala down when there should be another month left in their flight period here.
According to iNaturalist I have 40 species this season with 34 sp. in CT. I have not seen amatrix and relicta yet so I think I can get to my usual ~40-45 species in a season.
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Post by rayrard on Aug 26, 2021 10:15:19 GMT -8
Another bait/light night on Sleeping Giant. Much lower numbers but still high diversity
C. ilia - common C. palaeogama - a few plus one egg laying C. epione - a few very worn C. obscura - 1 on bait C. retecta - a few fresh to kind of worn C. vidua - 1 first of the year C. cerogama - 1 beat up C. cara - 1 fresh C. serena - 1 worn C. neogama - 1 worn (first seen this year oddly) C. habilis - 1 fresh C. nebulosa - 1 fresh C. amica - 1 fresh oddly enough C. flebilis - a few C. piatrix - 1 new for the year
plus one spotted with red hindwings on bait but not confirmed (ultronia/coccinata likely)
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Post by rayrard on Aug 13, 2021 14:09:28 GMT -8
Another light/bait setup at the same place as last Saturday's effort. More insect diversity and less individuals of Catocala but still a lot of them. More action on bait than last time but it was also hotter and drier.
C. ilia - abundant C. epione - abundant C. retecta - common C. residua - 3-4 C. dejecta - a few C. flebilis - several late flying C. palaeogama - common C. habilis - new for the year a few C. cerogama - 1 not seen Sat. C. lineella - 1 not seen Sat. C. amica - 2 C. andromedae - 1 male C. unijuga - 1 new for the year C. nebulosa - 1 C. serena - 1
So 15 species and still missing the classic later season species like obscura, vidua, amatrix, relicta, concumbens, piatrix, neogama, and cara
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Post by rayrard on Aug 9, 2021 10:36:48 GMT -8
Even suffering from depression or similar mental illness, that shouldn't prevent one from delivering a product that was paid for. And even if you forget or slacked off once or twice, the reminder emails or phone calls should be enough to complete the transaction especially for a veteran business owner. How this could be dragged along for months when you've been paid hundreds of dollars for a product you make is inexplicable for me. Maybe LepTraps had to make the bait trap and he was unable to do the work, but then any competent business owner shouldn't sell what he is unwilling or unable to build. At at worst take the payment AFTER the trap is built to save the buyer the hassle.
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Post by rayrard on Aug 9, 2021 10:19:56 GMT -8
I have two 250's but no ballast and Bioquip charges 350 plus shipping (ripoff). Is there anywhere to get a ballast made up and I can find an enclosure on my own (even a paint can) for cheaper. I am not electrically inclined to feel safe making my own and potentially shocking myself or ruining my lights!
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Post by rayrard on Aug 8, 2021 9:41:41 GMT -8
A massive number of Catocala moths last night (8-7-21) at the summit tower of Sleeping Giant. We saw EIGHTEEN species at light (with some of the same at bait but mostly light). We got all this and still missed ultronia, vidua, habilis, neogama and lineella!
Order of appearance: C. ilia - dozens of individuals of all forms (conspicua and satanas) C. palaeogama - probably more than two dozen of all forms from plain gray to pretty mottling (plus one phalanga form) C. epione - over two dozen of all different wear from beat to sort of fresh C. residua - over a dozen C. sordida - 4-5 at the light (OK to worn), none free flying though but there is blueberry around C. parta - 1 (odd since willow is not here) C. amica - 2 (kind of fresh) C. nebulosa - 2 (beautiful) C. coccinata - 3 (worn to OK) C. gracilis - 1 C. micronympha - 1 worn at light C. subnata - 1 at light C. flebilis - 6+ fresh C. serena - 2-3 fresh C. andromedae - 1 good condition C. retecta - over 6 fresh C. dejecta - 3-4 late fliers C. obscura - 1 as the sheets came down in the rain shower late
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Post by rayrard on Jul 26, 2021 22:40:44 GMT -8
Southern trip was quite poor for Catocala but it was rainy and I didn't tap very much because of travel times and the people I was with wanting to collect in better spots than bottomland forest in the shade! Bait also tends to suck in the humid south.
South Carolina: WeeTee Swamp C. carissima C. agrippina C. lineella
South Carolina: Monck's Corner C. myristica - 3 C. sappho - 1
C. ilia in NC
Poverty Creek VA - hotspot in 2019 was slow this time around C. blandula C. marmorata - only 1 C. ilia - several
The sappho and myristica were new species for me so I cannot complain, and getting marmorata again is only my second specimen
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