This is turning out to be an A1 summer!!!

[Deleted]

I've already posted about my C. marmorata and how special it was. Last night I sugared forty some trees and got twenty Catocalas which was fine. Yesterday before I went out, I freshened up my slop with bananas, apples, and sugar. Did up twenty five or so gallons mixed into my already fermented ten gallons left over from four years ago.

Well......why the post now? I slopped a mere seven trees in my backyard to get some Cats which I get fairly regularly which is great in that I live in a mini forest surrounded by corn and bean fields. Tonight I went out to check for the first round and there on the second tree was some large movement.......a female Witch Moth ( A. odorata) was fluttering at the slop. I about passed out, but got her in my cat trap, ran into the house, shut myself in a spare bedroom, and let her out. My trying to get her out would only damage her. She flew around for a bit, then landed and I got her and injected her. I have caught this gem before in TN, AZ, and now in northern IL. I can't believe it. Last weekend was C. carissima great. I'm having my reared A, io neomexicana eclose, and have reared 63 A. Zephyria to cocoons. I've caught dozens of both in NM. I've even had a few C. sepulcralis reared to fifth instar. My trip to OK even resulted in a few Schinia volupia......bright red and yellow and some nice Cherry Sphinxes.

So.......sorry for the rant, but getting an A. odorata this far north just about did me in. Interestingly, just seven or so years ago, I got my T. zenobia while sugaring a mere 13 miles from here.

[ckswank]

Way to go Bill! Looks to be in pretty good shape considering the distance it must have traveled. Always interesting to see what southerly winds will end up bringing, especially as fall approaches.

[Deleted]

What's weird is that she is in better shape than the five I caught in AZ. Even my TN moth is in better condition than the five. I'm lucky.

[beetlehorn]

Congratulations Bill! Your efforts and success are an inspiration to us all.

[appybugs]

Congrats Bill. She's a beaut!!!

[Deleted]

You know that moth probably had to fly past my house to get to yours.

[coloradeo]

Amazing condition indeed for so far North, but I guess that's how it go there in the first place! The one I saw in Arizona this year barely had wings and the two I have caught in my suburban Colorado back yard have been in worse shape than that.

Has anybody ever tried to rear black witch? Maybe we don't have the food plants in the USA or it's a difficult one to get the ova? Seems like it would be amazing to have a few of those emerge at the same time!

Eric

[exoticimports]

I got one in upstate NY many years ago. It's beat to heck, but still a favored specimen.

Chuck

[Chris Grinter]

Took one of these in Southern IL years ago during a misty/rainy night at mercury vapor light. It was a female that didn't have a single scratch on her, looked freshly eclosed.

[bugboys3]

There seems to be quite a few straying north this summer. The one I posted in another thread was from Southern Wisconsin and it didn't have a scratch on it. I talked to the University of Wisconsin entomologist and he said he had another Black Witch sighting last week.

[joee30]

Good catch, Bill. I collected one in AZ this season, and he was messed up, but a keeper none the less. I honestly don't care much for perfect specimens when they are my first and only capture.

[eurytides]

This might be a dumb question, but if it's a female, how come you didn't try to get some ova and raise them? Lack of host plant??

[Deleted]

First.......not a dumb question. To me, a question cannot be dumb, but the person who has a question and fails to ask might be considered dumb.

Believe me, I'm a big fan of ova collecting.......done it a lot this summer, but like u said, food plants for this are not found near me so far as I know. Oftentimes, I can put a wild caught female in an envelope with paperclips along the outer edges of her folded wings thus making her not able to flutter and when she's done laying eggs, I still have a fine specimen. Now if she is already in poor shape, I'll do the paper bag thing. My first wild caught female Automerupis io neomexicana was perfect A1. So I enveloped her, got ova, then removed the clips and injected her. She is not only still A1, but she the maternal rep of all the F1 generation that ensued. Kinda cool.
Now, I'm about to embark on a F2 generation of which the first female (F0) will be the grandmother of sorts.