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Post by rayrard on Jan 7, 2016 16:51:31 GMT -8
Attend the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Lepidopterists Society in Colorado and you should get both Colias meadi and Colorado Hairstreak. During the 2014 meeting in Park City, UT, the Colorado Hairstreak was abundant at Squaw Peak. I actually collected several very fresh female off of flowers with my forceps. Should you ever visit Kentucky in early July, I have several locations for Erora laeta. I was close to going to the Utah LepSoc but had work related stuff interfere. Lots of species would be new for me out there as I only collected once out west (in Colorado) and missed all fritillaries but mormonia and didn't see any hairstreaks or coppers except for a single worn Callophrys spineorum. My best species in Colorado were Pyrgus centaurae, Colias scudderi, and Oeneis uhleri. Lots of blues flying at that time too. Missed the Parnassians.
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Post by jhyatt on Jan 7, 2016 20:02:15 GMT -8
Bill, that H. aurora is an odd thing. Once in September several years ago I pulled 7 of them (all different, white to dark pink) out of one of Leroy's light traps in southern Georgia - but despite having trapped the same spot at the same time again and again since then, I've never taken another one!
My own list of collecting goals has always included all the North American species of the swamp skipper genus Euphyes. I came close to completion a few years ago when I at long last got E. bimacula. Now the only one I haven't personally taken is the Gulf coast endemic, E. bayensis. Not sure that one is still collectible - the word was that a hurricane kinda destroyed the best known spots for them.
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Post by rayrard on Jan 7, 2016 21:03:59 GMT -8
One of the challenges with swamp skippers is taking them outside their "strongholds" of range (many are much more common in Florida for example), and many are very localized. I had difficulty getting a male Palatka for a long time because it was so random whether you'd find a decent sawgrass marsh bordering areas with pickerelweed. Problema bulenta is quite rare but common in the marshes it likes.
I have all the swamp skippers but the Gulf thing that look like Dion, but failed to get the species in really exceptional localities.
E. dion, P. viator, P. yehl, Pr. bulenta, Pr. byssus, and E. vestris were very common during flight times in SC I caught one E. berryi in SC, and never saw another until I found a male in Florida I never caught a Poanes aaroni in SC, but got a ton in NJ and saw a few in Florida I only got one E. palatka in SC (the male) and only two others in GA I found only one good locality for E. dukesi, and it was reliable there, but none anywhere else P. massasoit and E. conspicua are locally common up in CT where I am now I took many NE E. bimacula but the holy grail was the southeastern coastal plain bimacula which I never found (I looked near Charleston and near Savannah) I never saw the "Loammi" double brooded skipper which used to be found along the SC coast I wanted to take the coastal plain Hesperia meskei and attalus but the relict sandhills habitat was accessible only by boat
There is also recorded specimens of the Golden-banded Skipper from Dorchester Co. SC near the coast. It doesn't exist there and the records seem erroneous but the collector (Ron Gatrelle) was prolific in that area and found many interesting species that have been extirpated in the last 20 years.
Skippers are fun to collect.
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evra
Full Member
Posts: 230
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Post by evra on Jan 7, 2016 22:14:46 GMT -8
It's funny how one man's trash is another man's treasure. A. cellus is incredibly common in the White Mountains of AZ in late June. They really like the nectar of Mertensia lanceolata. It is unusual not to see several hundred in one day. Until I figured this out, I thought it was really special too.
I think H. aurora is probably on a scrub or live oak, which is probably a lot more common in the deep south. Some of the western Hyparpax can be trash common in areas with abundant scrub oak.
If you're looking for Hyalophora, the flights start earlier in the year than you'd expect, and the adults, especially males, fly very late in the evening. Spotting cocoons in the winter can be really productive.
I guess I feel fortunate that I've gotten almost everything that I've been seriously looking for in the last 5-10 years: Hemileuca electra, H. stonei, Automeris randa, A. patagoniensis, Rothschildia cincta, Speyeria nokomis, Catocala relicta, Arachnis zuni, A. citra, Gnophaela clappiana, Lerina incarnata, Pygarctia neomexicana, Doa ampla, Gloveria howardi, Alexicles aspersa, Lintneria separatus, L. smithi, Sagenosoma elsa, Proserpinus vega, and Gazoryctra wielgusi.
I guess my top 3 for 2016 are Nemoria splendidaria, Lophochlorista lesteraria, and Anurapteryx crenulata, and maybe if I get over to W. Texas, Adhemarius blanchardorum and Eupseudomorpha brillians.
A lot of the western stuff is fairly easy to get, but the timing is critical because the flights are short, and it is all spread out over thousands of miles, so it requires a lot of driving.
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Post by jshuey on Jan 8, 2016 6:49:23 GMT -8
I tend to think about this issue a bit differently than most of the responses about "my most desirable species". More along the lines of where I want to collect rather than what exact species I want pinned in the collection. Along those lines - I'd love to be in the habitat that supports Drucina championi - mostly because I think that the entire butterfly community about half-way up the stratovolcanoes that ring Lake Atitlan would add 20+ other really cool bugs to my collection. Mostly skippers, hairstreaks and metalmarks. It would be pure adrenaline. And I have a plan. My wife loves the area, and I have located a great lake-side hotel in a small Maya village at the base of a likely candidate for the hike. And there is a well known guide that does the hike for a ridiculous low price (It is Guatemala after all!). I can see this all coming together in the next couple of years. It's really just a matter of figuring out schedules that jive with school for our son at this point. If I managed to actually get a couple of specimens of Drucina championi - well, that would just be the icing on the cake! John this is the one - but photographed from the wrong side of the lake!! Attachments:
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Post by jhyatt on Jan 8, 2016 8:08:34 GMT -8
Rayrard,
I do most of my skipper collecting on the SE coast, mainly GA. I've taken about everything one could hope for there, except P. aaroni (which I have collected in FL and the midwest). I have one GA E. berryi, and I find bulenta, byssus, palatka, dion, dukesi, and yehl to be more or less findable some year or other in that state. Arpa turned up in 2014 for me in GA, but I didn't see it last season. I got a couple or three bimacula just west of Savannah at what Lance Durden thinks is Ron Gatrelle's old original spot. But since I collected them the area had several very dry years, the pickerel weed patch (which was tiny) dried up, and the skippers have vanished. I've never seen meskei on the coastal plain, but have it from inland GA (and, eons ago, from Big Pine Key).
Swamp skippers are indeed fun. Nothing like trying to collect wearing chest waders and avoiding gator holes!
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Post by vabrou on Jan 8, 2016 8:57:03 GMT -8
In the discussions about Hyparpax aurora, the implication is that we are talking supposedly about one species but mentioning specimens from different locations in North America. Doubtfully that is the case. Specimens currently being called aurora from geographical across North America may turn out to actually be several species, some of which were described in the past as other species or subspecies, but have been mistakenly synonymized as is the situation stands now. These may be elevated to species status in the coming MONA fascicle on the Notodontidae. We wont have an answer till the publication appears, but even then one must remember what appears in any publication is just the opinion of that author, of that publication. Ten other authors performing the same different investigations may each have arrived at 10 different conclusions. Some researchers are so confused that they may lump many similar appearing but different species under one name. This incorrect lumping and incorrect synonymizing has occurred multiple times in several volumes of past MONA works, based upon research I have personally done on certain moth families. Still MONA is currently the 'BIBLE' of North American moths. I am quite certain 'H. aurora' will be revised to include more than just one species. Anyone care to venture an opinion about pair on left vs pair on right ?
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Post by rayrard on Jan 8, 2016 9:37:47 GMT -8
Rayrard, I do most of my skipper collecting on the SE coast, mainly GA. I've taken about everything one could hope for there, except P. aaroni (which I have collected in FL and the midwest). I have one GA E. berryi, and I find bulenta, byssus, palatka, dion, dukesi, and yehl to be more or less findable some year or other in that state. Arpa turned up in 2014 for me in GA, but I didn't see it last season. I got a couple or three bimacula just west of Savannah at what Lance Durden thinks is Ron Gatrelle's old original spot. But since I collected them the area had several very dry years, the pickerel weed patch (which was tiny) dried up, and the skippers have vanished. I've never seen meskei on the coastal plain, but have it from inland GA (and, eons ago, from Big Pine Key). Swamp skippers are indeed fun. Nothing like trying to collect wearing chest waders and avoiding gator holes! I forgot about E. arpa... good to get one out of Florida for sure. I looked for the Harris "Blichton" spot in Butterflies of Georgia using Google Earth. It was like a mile east of Blichton off the highway, but roads and roadsides have changed a lot since then and the habitat didn't exist. I didn't know Gatrelle had a GA spot, but I checked for Gatrelle's sweet spot north of Charleston in Berkeley Co. but that is now a strip mall. There are bits of pinewoods around it but clearly degraded. Looking at old 90's imagery of that area shows the pre-development forest and one can only dream of such nice spots now. He found berryi, bimacula, Callophrys irus, and others that are about extirpated. I have searched the Francis Marion Forest for many years for irus and failed. I found some decent lupine patches but the burn regime is screwed up and started recently after the species probably was crowded out by succession after Hurricane Hugo. The habitat for berryi is almost gone, and bimacula is probably associated with berryi and dion. My only berryi was taken in a wet freshwater marsh with lots of dion. How many years ago did you get your last bimacula in GA? Other species that are gone are Arogos, which probably existed in the Francis Marion and today's managed savannahs are prefect for it. There is just none left to repopulate the region. I checked Croatan NF in NC a few years ago and failed to find Arogos there in their final stronghold in the SE besides Fla. The Loammi is gone from all but Florida, and the NC coastal thing was described as a new species. Whatever the double-brooded hianna is in the Carolinas, it seems to be gone now. There has been a marked degradation in the Chinquapins in the Charleston area. There were several good trees when I first started collecting, but they had all died by the time I left SC. This was the best plant for Satyrium. Who knows what happened to Mottled Duskywing either. I still find the Dusky Roadside Skipper and Reversed Roadside Skipper in well managed areas. If I only had a time machine. Many of Ron Gatrelle's material was unique.
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Post by jhyatt on Jan 8, 2016 13:10:07 GMT -8
Vernon, all 4 of those skippers look like delaware to me at first glance. The size difference is indeed striking, but I occasionally run across some huge delawares in Georgia. I've even mistaken them for P. bulenta until taking them out of the net and looking closely. Quel disappointment!
Rayrard, my first and last time taking bimacula in GA was in 2010. Lance has checked the spot annually since (and occasionally I have, and Jeff Slotten too), and no more have been seen. Doesn't mean they might not pop up again some year - lots of leps live in boom-and-bust cycles. Yes, arogos is missing in action. In my earlier note I conflated arroni and arogos. I've never found eastern arogos, only midwestern ones. Arroni I've only taken in FL. My one GA berryi was a late-season specimen on roadside weeds in a dryish area, but nowhere down there is really far from brackish marsh.
Ron G. also had a great skipper spot somewhere right around the I-26/I-95 intersection, but I never could find it - it was probably filled in too. That intersection has been rebuilt in the past couple of years and I think it's definitely gone now.
I once got irus asarce in NC just inland from Shallotte. That whole Green Swamp area has changed a lot in recent decades - lots of drainage and replacement of swamp with pine plantations. Sad.
Do you think E. bayensis could still be found?
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Post by rayrard on Jan 8, 2016 15:25:57 GMT -8
In the discussions about Hyparpax aurora, the implication is that we are talking supposedly about one species but mentioning specimens from different locations in North America. Doubtfully that is the case. Specimens currently being called aurora from geographical across North America may turn out to actually be several species, some of which were described in the past as other species or subspecies, but have been mistakenly synonymized as is the situation stands now. These may be elevated to species status in the coming MONA fascicle on the Notodontidae. We wont have an answer till the publication appears, but even then one must remember what appears in any publication is just the opinion of that author, of that publication. Ten other authors performing the same different investigations may each have arrived at 10 different conclusions. Some researchers are so confused that they may lump many similar appearing but different species under one name. This incorrect lumping and incorrect synonymizing has occurred multiple times in several volumes of past MONA works, based upon research I have personally done on certain moth families. Still MONA is currently the 'BIBLE' of North American moths. I am quite certain 'H. aurora' will be revised to include more than just one species. Anyone care to venture an opinion about pair on left vs pair on right ? View AttachmentThey look like Delaware Skippers (A. logan) to me. One side looking fresher than the other.
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Post by rayrard on Jan 8, 2016 15:35:11 GMT -8
Vernon, all 4 of those skippers look like delaware to me at first glance. The size difference is indeed striking, but I occasionally run across some huge delawares in Georgia. I've even mistaken them for P. bulenta until taking them out of the net and looking closely. Quel disappointment! Rayrard, my first and last time taking bimacula in GA was in 2010. Lance has checked the spot annually since (and occasionally I have, and Jeff Slotten too), and no more have been seen. Doesn't mean they might not pop up again some year - lots of leps live in boom-and-bust cycles. Yes, arogos is missing in action. In my earlier note I conflated arroni and arogos. I've never found eastern arogos, only midwestern ones. Arroni I've only taken in FL. My one GA berryi was a late-season specimen on roadside weeds in a dryish area, but nowhere down there is really far from brackish marsh. Ron G. also had a great skipper spot somewhere right around the I-26/I-95 intersection, but I never could find it - it was probably filled in too. That intersection has been rebuilt in the past couple of years and I think it's definitely gone now. I once got irus asarce in NC just inland from Shallotte. That whole Green Swamp area has changed a lot in recent decades - lots of drainage and replacement of swamp with pine plantations. Sad. Do you think E. bayensis could still be found? Yeah that 526/26 spot was the one I checked out. He was getting Frosted Elfin in Goose Creek, which is all developed now. A shame as there is tons of natural habitat to the north of Charleston. Some species are no doubt hiding in the Francis Marion NF but I've looked hard in there for years. Some species are just hard to get no matter what. As to an interesting skipper from the east is the "berryi" form of Problema byssus. You get some light oragne females with the chevron but also very rusty females with faint veins and look just like Berry's until you open the wings and check the upperside. Many Berry's records are likely dark form byssus outside Florida, and stresses the need for a net when studying skippers. I have a possible Neamaltha Skipper from coastal SC, and Dr. Scholtens at College of Chas. has a verified Neamathla from near Charleston. Catch Swarthy Skippers on the SE coastal plain.
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mikeh
Full Member
Posts: 207
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Post by mikeh on Jan 8, 2016 16:45:03 GMT -8
From Colorado a few species have still evaded me like Boloria frigga, Callophrys fotis, Euphilotes stanfordorum and Thessalia fulvia. I would also love to get in deeper into the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming and look for Colias gigantea, Boloria alaskensis, Boloria improba and Carterocephalus palaemon.
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Post by jshuey on Jan 13, 2016 7:44:56 GMT -8
Do you think E. bayensis could still be found? US-FWS did a status survey a couple of years back - they found it quite common in a few areas in southern Louisiana and adjacent Texas. I looked at the some of their vouchers and photos, and verified their IDs. It was using habitats along ditches very near the western coast - but that's about all I can remember. Also, many of the old Louisiana costal records of Euphyes dion in museum collections have turned out to E. bayensis. My guess is that this will be true for costal SE Texas as well. John
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Post by bandrow on Jan 13, 2016 18:33:49 GMT -8
Greetings, It seems this thread went totally lep on us, so I figured I better get a beetle list included!! I've always had a weakness for the genus Batocera but rarely have had the financial freedom to go after some of the rare species, so goodies like Batocera ammiralis, B. boisduvali and B. migsominea are high on my "wish list". Some of the rare Rosenbergia would be fun too. For Nearctic species, some Cerambycidae that I'd love to acquire are Plinthocoelium schwarzi, Necydalis barbarae, Tragidion gracilipes, Megacyllene lutosa and Deltaspis ivae - all local, rare species from various parts of the West. Easier to obtain will be the numerous species of aphodiine scarabs that I don't yet have - just time and travel will be required! Cheers! Bandrow
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Post by papiliotheona on Jan 14, 2016 14:50:36 GMT -8
I have seen Oeneis polixenens katahdin in Maine. Could not collect them. Still on my list. Katadhin is off-limits because it is a special case, not because the state has an agenda. The owner of the land including Mt. Katadhin was anti-collecting. When he willed his property to the state it was on the condition that no take of any living thing be permitted on it.
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