Arizona/ New Mexico collecting

[mothula83]

I will be making my way out west at the end of the month. And on the way back home I will be driving through Arizona and New Mexico. I was wondering if there are any requirements to have permission to collect at certain area and where can people collect. And where would there be the most diversity. I plan on doing some night collecting. PM me or post below.


Thanks

[evra]

You can legally collect on just about all National Forest land without any kind of issue, and most BLM land. Most of the mountains in Arizona and New Mexico are National Forest though. It all really depends on what you want to collect as well. The 'classic' collecting in Arizona is in various spots in the southern mountain ranges. I just did some collecting down there and the season is just starting. I saw a few of each of the following Saturniids: Antheraea oculea, Hyalophora columbia gloveri, Citheronia splendens sinaloensis, Automeris iris hesselorum, Sphingicampa montana, and S. raspa. Sphingids: Sphinx chersis, S. dollii, Lintneria istar, Paonias myops, Manduca florestan, M. rustica, M. muscosa, M. sexta, M. quinquemaculata, Eumorpha achemon, Hyles lineata, and Xylophanes falco. Arctiids: Dysschema howardi, Arachnis aulaea, A. picta, A. zuni, Apocrisias thaumasta, Carales arizonensis, Gardinia anopla, Lophocampa pura, Hypercompe suffusa, H. permaculata, Grammia incorrupta, Gnamptonychia ventralis, Estigeme albida, Hypocrisias minima, Leucanopsis perdentata, Pygarctia roseicapitis, Ctenucha venosa, Bertholdia trigona, and Euchaetes antica. Way too many Noctuids to name, also good Notodontids, but the season is just starting. Also all 3 of the Chrysinas are flying (gloriosa, beyeri, lecontei).

[mothula83]

Thank you for the information evra. Are there any places in northern arizona that are decent for collecting? Are there places that you would recommend or where have you collected?

[Chris Grinter]

Not being sarcastic, but basically any National Forest land you stop in to collect will be amazingly productive. Any of the Bureau of Land Management areas are also open to collecting (usually lower, range-land habitat, but often fascinating). When in New Mexico I discovered the higher elevations near Cloudcroft more interesting than Pecos. And at Cloudcroft you can go down to High Rolls for things like Automeris zephyria.

Whenever I go on a roadtrip I like to have a few goal spots in mind, and then I randomly pick areas on a map and target them. Sometimes I end up unknowingly going to a famous spot for something, or discover a spot people don't normally go to because they aim for the "famous" localities like Pena Blanca Canyon/Madera Canyon in Arizona.


You should also search these forums for collecting in Arizona/New Mexico. Most of these areas have been discussed dozens of times.

[evra]

When you say "Northern Arizona" it's kind of vague. Most of the far northern AZ is off-limits to collecting because it is either part of the Grand Canyon National Park or Navajo Indian Reservation, both of which you can't collect in. There is the Kaibab Plateau, which is National Forest land, but I've never collected there. There are a lot of spots in the center of the state, north of Phoenix to around Flagstaff from Prescott in the west to New Mexico in the east that can be good.

But even a good night in a good spot in central AZ or New Mexico will probably only get you 1/10th as much as a night in southern AZ. So unless you're looking for something really specific, I'd stay south and east of Tucson.

[w1]

Northern az and nm have had trouble with fire. Had a pain trying to find camping check ahead. Southern areas have started producing. Took Chrysina and prionids.

[papiliotheona]

I am strictly a butterfly collector but would generally agree with the above advice. National Parks are offlimits and tribal lands require a very limited, regulated permit.

The Flagstaff area has great butterflies circa May and June, but much less of a monsoonal response like further south. Pena Blanca Lake and Madera Canyon may be cliched, but they are consistently very good.

California Gulch is about 5 miles west and 5 miles south of Sycamore Canyon down the Forest Road 217 loop. Drive all the way down to the bottom where the canyon opens wide up. With recent Border Patrol grading these roads are generally very good; however, you can get lost as there are a number of unmarked forks on it.

My best area for total productivity is the Harshaw area of the Patagonias circa 10 days-2 weeks after the first pounding rain. That would be around July 20 this year.

[papiliotheona]

Other places:

Box Canyon in the Santa Ritas--you can never go wrong there and it's very close to Madera
Florida Canyon, Ritas--Asterocampa and skipper paradise
Chiricahua Mtns--recently burned, but a vast array of really neat things, some of which should be out in numbers
South side of the Huachucas west of Coronado National Monument--good place to get Mexican moths
Molino Basin area of Catalinas--basic, but close to town, easy access, and a lot of good "bread and butter" material

[Chris Grinter]

I had some pretty great luck on the Kaibab north of Grand Canyon NP. That area looks like it burned a few years ago and has been logged pretty heavily in places, but tons of wildflowers and butterflies were everywhere (Butterflies aren't my thing so I didn't try looking for the famous indra kaibabensis - I guess there is a spot somewhere you can get it outside of the park?) It's a confusing maze of logging roads so bring a GPS if you don't want to get lost up there for two years.

[bugman52]

I need to get some Amblycheila DNA for my study on Omus. So I'm thinking of heading east to Prescott and Jerome for A. picolominii. If that doesn't pan out I'll be searching over around Payson/Star Valley. Has anyone had any success in these areas? They're all at the right elevation, and I believe Prescott is about as far west as they come.