Hemileuca Pheromones

[beetlehorn]

Last year I did some field scouting for the Eastern Buckmoth (Hemileuca maia), and I was successful in finding a localized population that encompases approximately six square miles. I saw males and females flying from around 11:00 am to 3:00 pm depending on weather conditions. I was never able to find a virgin female, I think that would be an amazing stroke of luck. What I was trying to do was get an idea of how the scent plume from a caged female would attract males in different locations. I observed males flying in two different directions generally, and I concluded that their behavior was in direct relation to the surrounding landscape such as hills, forest openings, and woodlots. This is termed "anemotaxis", and it is mostly affected by wind direction, or so I observed. I am trying to find a source for a synthetic or man made sex pheromone. Is it available in small quantity? I know it was once produced at the Department of Entomology in Riverside California, respectfully by McElfresh JS, Hammond AM, and Miller JG. I am working with the instructor of entomology at my local university here in middle Tennessee, and we would like to document this phenomenon, hopefully getting some video footage. I don't think this has ever been done with Hemileuca maia in the eastern US. Any help at all would be appreciated. Tom

[leptraps]

Send me a PM.

[admin]

Pheromone Lure ~ The Movie:
www.insectnet.com/videos/field/pheromone/pheromone.htm

Madness, I tell you! Madness!

This lure (a rubber pencil eraser saturated with artificial pheromone) was synthesized at UC Riverside and kept in the freezer for many years by an acquaintance of mine (who prefers to remain anonymous). He would bring it out of the freezer for each flight season and it was effective for many years. But it is no longer available from the original creators I am told.

[beetlehorn]

Nice video Clark. You guys on the west coast are fortunate to have so many different Hemileucas. Here in Tennessee there is only the one species...Hemileuca maia. I went out today to the place I found them last year, and so far nothing. It is a bit early yet, and we are having a late fall as well (about three weeks behind normal schedule). It is only a ten minute drive for me, so I will be checking back each week. The project I am planning on is to have either a caged virgin female, synthesized pheromone, or both. Place them upwind of a selected site, then capture some males, mark them, and release them in varying locations, at different distance increments. I would like to document and video the responsiveness, elapsed time of arrivals, and anemotaxis behavior. Hemileuca maia is well suited to this kind of project due to the fact that they are diurnal fliers, have a strong instinct for this behavior, and are the only Saturnidae moths flying at this time of year. I have been told this pheromone is very expensive to produce, so I will have to try and find a virgin female. I suspect late afternoon would give more accurate results because by then nearly all other females will have been bred, and stopped calling. This lessens the chance that the released males will be steered to another female instead of the caged one. I don't think this type of project has ever been done and recorded on video. Tom

[wollastoni]

Greqt video Clark!
How long does it take to lure those males ? Did they arrive instantly when you opened the bottle with the lure ?

[admin]

Oct 27, 2013 12:21:30 GMT -8 wollastoni said:

Greqt video Clark!
How long does it take to lure those males ? Did they arrive instantly when you opened the bottle with the lure ?

It was instantaneous on that particular day! You gotta have a slight breeze, however, to make it work.

Here's another video - of collecting H. nevadensis without a lure:
www.insectnet.com/videos/field/nev07/nev07.htm

Beetlehorn: As you will see in this vid we found a mating pair right off the bat as soon as we arrived at the location at 10 AM. Perhaps you should go to your maia spot a little earlier and you are bound to find some freshly emerged females, like say 9:30 AM. The trick is to capture one just as they are emerging, before the males get to her. Then you put her in a cage and wait for the males. They will surely come.

[beetlehorn]

In your nevadensis video the foliage looks very green, whereas here in November everything is turning brown typically. I also noted that H. maia seem to fly in a more deliberate direction, and with some speed. Sometimes they come fluttering by, and are relatively easy to catch, then sometimes they seem very determined to just fly fast and in one direction. I looked for females early one day last year at the time of peak flight, but to no avail. It would be nice to actually rear them, then having a calling female wouldn't be such a task. All I can do is keep trying. Thanks for the advice.

[admin]

Oct 27, 2013 17:23:30 GMT -8 beetlehorn said:

In your nevadensis video the foliage looks very green, whereas here in November everything is turning brown typically. I also noted that H. maia seem to fly in a more deliberate direction, and with some speed. Sometimes they come fluttering by, and are relatively easy to catch, then sometimes they seem very determined to just fly fast and in one direction. I looked for females early one day last year at the time of peak flight, but to no avail. It would be nice to actually rear them, then having a calling female wouldn't be such a task. All I can do is keep trying. Thanks for the advice.

Looking for virgin females at the peak flight time of the males is already too late, at least for eglanterina and nevadensis. You gotta get there earlier and scour the bushes for the emerging females hanging in the twigs drying their wings. And you gotta get lucky of course. When all else fails then yes, you have to rear them to get calling females for the next season. This is what I do.

[exoticimports]

Studies of the rare Lake Ontario coastal bog maia are undertaken by SUNY Oswego and Nature Conservancy. I know they have done phermone baiting, so probably SUNY has the phermone. Not sure if they'd release any.

In my limited observations (keeping in mind this is the bog maia) the females sit in the grass while the males buzz around looking for them- and, unlike other saturnids which can readily find females, maia males seem to have great difficulty finding the females, often buzzing only meters from them without even scenting them.

[beetlehorn]

The formula for the pheromone lure is available online, and there is probably still some quantity of the original chemical left somewhere. Common logic tells me that if someone has produced it in the past, it can be reproduced again. The question is will someone take the initiative to do so, and what would be the incentive to go through the effort and money. I believe the basic chemicals are relatively inexpensive. It is the lab work, equipment, and time involved that would be very expensive. Knowing this I will expand my search for a virgin female, perhaps then I will up the odds of starting my project. I do appreciate all the helpful hints, they may just make a difference.