Arctia caja encounters in US/Canada ?

I appreciate everyone's personal input on this thread regarding weather they have or have not found A. caja -- and where found.

I think range maps (at best) are only approximations of where something may be found. If a map is more than 10 years old I feel it's pretty much out of date.

With our climate changing and man's ever increasing impact on this Earth I think most species ranges have probably ebbed rather than flowed/increased.

Any modern books that have range maps should be reasonably accurate if the author (actually) investigated each to some extent. The same thing with the web. Reasonable accuracy depends on who puts the map range up (for all to see); and where did they get it from is important. Not just copied from old literature...

I like range maps with (specific) recorded instances of a species in any given county in the US. However, even such maps should have shaded in counties if the records date prior to the 1980s.

This is why I like to personally hear from collector friends when I pose such a question because they are my "boots on the ground" and have first hand knowledge/experience.

An awful lot of things Lepidoptera (wise) have become increasingly localized and even nonexistent in many of the former places that once harbored them !

As I've said any map older than 10 years is the past and is kind of like looking at neanderthal artwork in various caves of Europe and elsewhere.

Yes, the species once was there but, now is only an old record.

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“Range “ maps are just that ; they show the
area in which something may be found . For example the county in which I live is completely; according to several guide maps darkened in the range map of the bog turtle . However like many species it’s all about very specific habitat within that range . In my county with is tens of thousands of acres the bog turtle maybe inhabits 20 acres at several sites; and because of its secretive nature is actually less rare than generally thought .