Post by nightwings on Jul 20, 2019 8:01:43 GMT -8
I don't why I have never responded to this thread before, as I find it very interesting. Sorry if this is long, but I have a lot to catch up on.
As a teenager in north central Texas I spent a fair amount of time searching for cocoons with another collector friend. The best success we had was in post oak woodlands for polyphemus (sometimes on native elms also). My dad and I found cecropias (mostly emerged) in thickets of grape vines in woodlands along the TX-OK border. Good cocoon spinning habitat I presume because the only larvae I ever found was on a persimmon tree.
After a period of "collecting dormancy", ie college and grad school, I began again and one of my first experiences was collecting with Steve Stone in the Denver suburbs for cecropias. They were found in amazing numbers in golden elderberry thickets planted around apartments and other buildings. My first trip we found over 70 viable cocoons in a short time.
I later applied that tidbit of information when visiting in-laws in Sioux Falls,SD. Near the entrance of a racket club there I found a dozen viable cecropia on two small bushes of golden elderberry, then more (mostly empty) on elm trees in suburban areas. I also found a nice pair of polyphemus, one on European birch and one on a low plant near the same trees.They produced a beautiful pair that I still keep in my collection, The female was the largest polyphemus cocoon and adult I have seen.
Around the same time, while visiting my mother near Dallas, TX, I found four nice polyphemus cocoons on oak (red, I believe). Two turned out to be parasitized and two produced adults (also in my collection now).
I found a few gloveri cocoons searching in antelope bitter brush(Purshia tridentata) in the Wyoming sagebrush-bitterbrush areas, but never a viable one. (I might add that collecting larvae off the plants in summer was very productive and I could sometimes find them in the dozens while hiking on trails in the bitterbrush, or even road biking through the habitats on the east slope of the Wind Rivers, near Lander.
I also found gloveri the same way near Prescott, AZ while hiking trails in the foothills covered with Rhus trilobata and Cercocarpus betuloides, but never in any number. Gloveri cocoons are tough to find in the dense brush lands where they thrive. In fact rattlesnakes are much more common, so....
Finally, in Southern Arizona, I occasionally come across emerged E. calleta cocoons in the desert or hills near stands of Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), which is an excellent food plant for them. In some areas with thickets of Condalia spathulata near riparian areas, Agapema anona cocoons can form large masses (mostly of older generations), and also on Microrhamnus ericoides , both in Santa Cruz County. Collecting those is tough due to high temperatures during the summer, and an abundance of spiny, thorny plants and stinging insects. Agapema homogena cocoons can be found in the mountain habitats of Pima, Cochise, and Santa Cruz counties where Rhamnus californicus ursinus is abundant locally. These are best found by searching crevices in the bark of ponderosa pines or in rocks or even between blocks in retaining walls and tables in picnic areas.
While walking. my dogs in Sonora, MX, I frequently find R. cincta cocoons on the larger leafed limber bush (Jatropha cuneata), or nearby creosote, almost always emerged or victimized by ants, birds or rodents. On one walk near a beach on an island in the sea of Cortez, I counted 0ver 70 old cocoons. These are the same cocoons the various indigenous desert Indian tribes of the Sonoran Desert utilize to make the leg rattles for their dance costumes. I have only seen two viable cincta cocoons from the wild.
That is all I can recall right now. Thanks for the thread,
As a teenager in north central Texas I spent a fair amount of time searching for cocoons with another collector friend. The best success we had was in post oak woodlands for polyphemus (sometimes on native elms also). My dad and I found cecropias (mostly emerged) in thickets of grape vines in woodlands along the TX-OK border. Good cocoon spinning habitat I presume because the only larvae I ever found was on a persimmon tree.
After a period of "collecting dormancy", ie college and grad school, I began again and one of my first experiences was collecting with Steve Stone in the Denver suburbs for cecropias. They were found in amazing numbers in golden elderberry thickets planted around apartments and other buildings. My first trip we found over 70 viable cocoons in a short time.
I later applied that tidbit of information when visiting in-laws in Sioux Falls,SD. Near the entrance of a racket club there I found a dozen viable cecropia on two small bushes of golden elderberry, then more (mostly empty) on elm trees in suburban areas. I also found a nice pair of polyphemus, one on European birch and one on a low plant near the same trees.They produced a beautiful pair that I still keep in my collection, The female was the largest polyphemus cocoon and adult I have seen.
Around the same time, while visiting my mother near Dallas, TX, I found four nice polyphemus cocoons on oak (red, I believe). Two turned out to be parasitized and two produced adults (also in my collection now).
I found a few gloveri cocoons searching in antelope bitter brush(Purshia tridentata) in the Wyoming sagebrush-bitterbrush areas, but never a viable one. (I might add that collecting larvae off the plants in summer was very productive and I could sometimes find them in the dozens while hiking on trails in the bitterbrush, or even road biking through the habitats on the east slope of the Wind Rivers, near Lander.
I also found gloveri the same way near Prescott, AZ while hiking trails in the foothills covered with Rhus trilobata and Cercocarpus betuloides, but never in any number. Gloveri cocoons are tough to find in the dense brush lands where they thrive. In fact rattlesnakes are much more common, so....
Finally, in Southern Arizona, I occasionally come across emerged E. calleta cocoons in the desert or hills near stands of Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), which is an excellent food plant for them. In some areas with thickets of Condalia spathulata near riparian areas, Agapema anona cocoons can form large masses (mostly of older generations), and also on Microrhamnus ericoides , both in Santa Cruz County. Collecting those is tough due to high temperatures during the summer, and an abundance of spiny, thorny plants and stinging insects. Agapema homogena cocoons can be found in the mountain habitats of Pima, Cochise, and Santa Cruz counties where Rhamnus californicus ursinus is abundant locally. These are best found by searching crevices in the bark of ponderosa pines or in rocks or even between blocks in retaining walls and tables in picnic areas.
While walking. my dogs in Sonora, MX, I frequently find R. cincta cocoons on the larger leafed limber bush (Jatropha cuneata), or nearby creosote, almost always emerged or victimized by ants, birds or rodents. On one walk near a beach on an island in the sea of Cortez, I counted 0ver 70 old cocoons. These are the same cocoons the various indigenous desert Indian tribes of the Sonoran Desert utilize to make the leg rattles for their dance costumes. I have only seen two viable cincta cocoons from the wild.
That is all I can recall right now. Thanks for the thread,