leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Jul 18, 2019 2:41:19 GMT -8
When I lived in Virginia, 1974 to 1982, I collect Butterflies and Skippers, Saturnids, Sphingids, Arctiidae, Heliothinae, Sesiidea, some Erebidae and Noctuidae. Now I collect all moths with the exception of most Microlepidoptera. Once upon a time I did collect Microlepidoptera. The way I do things, life is to short for me to collect Microlepidoptera. I collect Pyralidae for a friend and Pterophoridae for another Lepidopterist.
Once upon a time I saved and stuck pins in Beetles for a Coleopterist.But when he complained about how I pinned them, he got no more. I also field pinned moths for a young (At the time) Entomologist, but when I learned he was selling virtually everything I gave him, that was the last he got from me.
And yesterday, in preparation for my move to NE Ohio, I took down the Bait Trap in my yard. This is the first time since I moved into the house in 2005 that there is no Bait Trap in my yard. This is the first since I originally moved to Kentucky in 2000 that I do not have a Bait Trap hanging from a tree in the Great State of Kentucky.
I hate leaving Kentucky.
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Post by jhyatt on Jul 18, 2019 3:55:20 GMT -8
Leroy,
Is your new house in a reasonable spot to hang a trap or two? Hope so! jh
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Jul 18, 2019 5:32:35 GMT -8
There are some large trees in both the front and back yard. Ample limbs for a Trap or two or five.
If you look at a map of the greater Cleveland, Ohio area, in the very southeast corner you will find the City of Aurora. It is actually in Portage County and is part of the greater Akron, Ohio area. I grew up on the east side of the City of Cleveland.
Portage County was I area that I collected regularly. The Mantua Marsh and the headwaters of the Cuyahoga River (Yes, that Cuyahoga River, the only River in the entire world to catch fire and burn, not once but twice). I have many specimens in my collection from this area. Those were pre-Bait Trap and pre-Light Trap days. This could prove to be very interesting for this old Lepidopterists.
Also, to keep me from being targeted by some community officials, their was a small community in Geauga(?) County that had a law prohibiting Flatulence. The community was located where two US(?) routes crossed each other. There was a Gas & Go on one corner, the sign in the window exclaimed. Two Chilli Dogs, Fries & Drink $4.59. Feel free to break wind. And down at the bottom of the sign: TP $.59 a roll. It was a busy place...
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Jul 18, 2019 5:49:26 GMT -8
After my relocation post, I got a couple of PM's. Cleveland is not "The Mistake on the Lake"....
I am a Cleveland, Ohio native. Die Hard Brown's fan (Watch out in 2019). Indians Fan (Go Tribe), and the Cavilers. Also a huge Ohio State Fan. An yes I know what a Buckeye is!!
However, I will always remain a Kentucky Wildcat fan, forever.
I will leave a piece of my heart in Kentucky!
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Post by Jonn on Jul 18, 2019 11:40:04 GMT -8
Went tree tapping for a couple hours and saw 50+ ilia, 1 coccinata, 2 neogama, 1 maestosa, 1 vidua, 1 piatrix (common at bait but only 3rd tt) & 1 lacrymosa. Most species i've ever seen tree tapping.
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Post by fishnbugz on Jul 18, 2019 14:33:34 GMT -8
I had a couple more whitneyii and ilia in South Dakota, saw lots of ultronia, grynea, and parta. Caught the first amestris I've seen up there, both amestris and parta are seeming more common than usual out here for 2019. Severe weather both nights, I didn't even bother with bait traps the second night after about half of them got roughed up in the storm the first night. Most of my night 2 lighting was wasted effort too when a hailstorm hit, but I did alright on night one- and even after the storms a bunch of Grammia virgo(and 1 phyllira) arrived at the lights in mostly perfect condition. I added a few sphinx moths and caught even more fish than usual with the old man.
On night 2 the storm hit right about when my alarm went off, and it knocked out the power; looking outside I thought the hail had broken both lights besides wrecking the night's catch. When I realized the lights were OK, I re-started them to run them while the sky was still dark from the storm, and 5 virgo arrived after the storm, 530 to 6 when I'd normally have them off already.
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Post by fishnbugz on Jul 19, 2019 13:56:58 GMT -8
I ran about 20 traps up by the river last night. Some of them were empty when I picked up, but some of them really hit well. I ended up with 4 illecta, 7 nuptialis, 2 whitneyii, a black witch moth, a couple forms of ilia and innubens, another S. kalmiae, and more amestris and micronympha. When I got home there was another amestris in a trap there, this time certainly not a hitchhiker. So amestris I have always had to drive 30+ miles to catch- but this year it is very common in that area, and it has shown up everywhere else I collect too.
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Post by rayrard on Jul 22, 2019 9:16:51 GMT -8
I had very good fortune that our Virginia trip coincided with the heat wave this weekend. We hit an awesome tapping location that was suggested near Blacksburg VA along Craig Creek and hit the jackpot Friday. We went back Saturday and had only several ilia, so I don't know what happened from Friday to Saturday but the species diversity disappeared. We put out MV and bait in that exact spot Friday night and not much came in. Catocala are wierd moths.
Catocala amica - common tapping and a few at light C. lineella - common tapping C. andromedae - 2 at light C. coccinata - 1 tapping C. crataegi - 1 at light C. dejecta - 2 tapping C. flebilis - 5 tapping C. micronympha - 3 at light C. epione - 1 at light C. ilia - common tapping and a couple at light C. lacrymosa - 1 tapping C. marmorata - 9-10 tapping! (this species was one of the more common ones in the woods Friday) C. sappho - 1 tapping (my friend got this with an extension net 20 feet up) C. nebulosa - 1 tapping C. residua - 3 tapping (very hoppy) C. palaeogama - 1 C. ultronia - 2
We found a couple sites with good tapping but bait and light were kind of a bust. We had 6 species at light at Mountain Lake and the road to White Rocks. The main marmorata site we tapped for like 3-4 hours and I wish we spent more time as I only managed to get 1 specimen as they were super jumpy and would fly into the trees when disturbed. I couldn't jar them on the tree because they were very active so had to use a net and that method is difficult with Cats as they always manage to find the escape route. My friend got 3 marmorata and the sappho. My net cost me at least a couple marmorata, the lacrymosa, and a nebulosa. I never use nets with Cats and my rustiness showed.
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Post by rayrard on Jul 22, 2019 16:06:49 GMT -8
This may be a bit too far, however, if you can get to Blue Grass, Virginia in Highland County. Travel west from Blue Grass on RT640 to RT642. Turn right on RT642. stay on RT642, you will climb up and over Big Jack (??) Mountain. The view from the top is spectacular. Once you cross over the mountain you will descend into a bottom area. On your right there is a farm and a farm house. On the left is access to the George Washington NF and on bottom there is area with a creek and lot's of Beaver Dams. The Trout Fishing was excellent. If you continue up and out of the valley, you will enter "West by God Virginia". When I lived near Staunton, Virginia, I had Bait Traps in that Valley and along the NF Access roads. There was lots of Catocala. This is/was a fantastic area to collect. The last time I visited the area was 2001. That was 18 years ago. I sugared for moths along the NF access road. My best catch was Catocala herodias. However, there were lot's of Catocala moths. I looked at my specimens of Catocala herodias. I collected them on 15 July to 22 August. It it a long journey, even when I lived in Virginia. It was one of my favorite locations. I visited this area but had no luck finding spots to collect Catocala. I went into Blue Grass and 640 and 642 came together there. We went up a road called Laurel Fork Rd and went up the mountain. We saw a house at the crest and a wet meadow and a creek (Straight Fork) but that habitat had no access roads off of it and just some roadside milkweed. We didn't see any NF roads or signs up there and the road went back into the deep woods. These woods were maple dominated and not anywhere as good as the woods in Blacksburg VA. We continued to drive around the road until we reached West Virginia but there was no valley to drive up and lots of private property signs and campsites. We drove up 28 to Cherry Grove and drove the other direction back to Blue Grass from the north and didn't see any good collecting spots. I was wondering if we hit the correct spot and if you have a map locality showing where the good Catocala spot was. It was plenty warm to tap trees but we didn't find the location in your post. I didn't see any "view" from 642 as it was heavily forested to the top. Did we miss the spot?
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Post by rayrard on Jul 22, 2019 16:07:56 GMT -8
With it being 90 degrees I went tapping and had a single C. neogama in SE PA.
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Post by LEPMAN on Jul 22, 2019 17:20:11 GMT -8
I ran about 20 traps up by the river last night. Some of them were empty when I picked up, but some of them really hit well. I ended up with 4 illecta, 7 nuptialis, 2 whitneyii, a black witch moth, a couple forms of ilia and innubens, another S. kalmiae, and more amestris and micronympha. When I got home there was another amestris in a trap there, this time certainly not a hitchhiker. So amestris I have always had to drive 30+ miles to catch- but this year it is very common in that area, and it has shown up everywhere else I collect too. I’m dying to see pictures of your traps in action. I too make my own traps and they’ve worked well for me, I just haven’t been able to get my traps set out and about since I’m traveling at the moment.
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Post by fishnbugz on Jul 22, 2019 17:51:11 GMT -8
If this picture works, it is an illecta with some interesting hindwings, collected right here in my yard. It's gonna be down in the 50's tonight and I don't expect much action, there have been some meskei, parta, and neogama in the traps the last few nights. I caught 2 illecta and a whitneyi Friday night, trapping in a few spots close to home, and I caught a pair of dobsonflies, my first I've ever seen, in the last few nights. The female was at the light and the male was in a bait trap- what an awesome bug!
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Post by rayrard on Jul 25, 2019 10:13:11 GMT -8
We went to a urban nature preserve for an outreach event and had low hopes but ended up with some new Cats for the year and one new species for me personally.
All on bait:
C. ultronia - 5 C. lineella - 1 C. muliercula - 1 C. meskei - 1
Also another orange HW large that may have been meskei or parta
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2019 6:23:39 GMT -8
My sugaring the last two nights........
C. ultronia.....6.......two forms nebulosa........1 ilia..........4.........saw many more mira........1...........only my fourth amatrix........5........reg. and form nirus subnata.......4 neogama......4 illecta........1.......my first one taken in IL cara.......1
Will do more next week. Finally seems as though the Catocala action is warming up.
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Post by rayrard on Jul 28, 2019 7:47:39 GMT -8
Added a couple more at light
C. ultronia C. coccinata
Also visited my bait trap and had another meskei and an ultronia along with a ton of Zale and 4 Question Marks.
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