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Post by vgashtarov on Jan 10, 2014 3:14:56 GMT -8
really stunning Hepialidae, i have a few males and females of New Zealand Aenetus virescens im going to list for sale on ebay once i get around to mounting them in a few weeks. the females are extremely rare too Hi Zactac, I have no idea if the females of the Aenetus virescens are rare, but males are not rare at all. Friends from USA and Finland who was collecting in NZ told me A. virescens is common moth, even they choose the most perfect ones and different variations. Timsbugs - excellent moths ! |
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Post by Zacatak on Jan 10, 2014 15:49:36 GMT -8
Hi there, your correct about A. Virescens being common, however its only the males that are common. The females are extremely hard to capture as they don't come to light. The only way to collect females is expupae. And its not possible to breed and raise them because they spend many years as larvae inside tree trunks. So indeed it is a true rarity to obtain a female A. Virescens, especially in perfect quality
Cheers zac
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Post by vgashtarov on Jan 11, 2014 7:38:50 GMT -8
I believe you Zac, we have here we have here Ulochlaena hirta, a small late autumn Noctuidae species, which males are everywhere. The female is with undeveloped wings and is EXTREMELY rare in collections. Very few people saw it alive, probably the same number of person has it ! Last November is sweep all, I mean ALL slope of an hill, that place is very rich of males. No single female has been found. Ironically, my best friend has found one on his...neck...climbing!
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evra
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Post by evra on Jan 11, 2014 15:59:32 GMT -8
Lots of members of the family Lymantriidae only have vestigial wings. The only way to get them is to rear them.
My experience with Hepialids is pretty limited. We only have 3 local species, of which I have collected 2. They only seem to fly when it is cold and rainy, and usually right after dark. There are some other rare Arctiids and Schinias that fly in the same place at the same time, but they prefer warm and dry weather. So on the one hand, it is kind of frustrating because you cannot get everything in a single night, but on the other hand, you are pretty much guaranteed to get something good regardless of the weather.
My one attempt at trying to rear a Hepialid went no where because I couldn't get the ova that the female laid to hatch. They must require some special weather conditions or something.
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Post by vgashtarov on Jan 11, 2014 23:02:53 GMT -8
Hi Evra, Yes, many Lymantriidae are wingless, many other species of Psychidae, Arctiidae are with undeveloped wings or wingless...and females of some genera of the Psychidae family looks like a fly's larvae. I had reared many of them, the female is staying in the bag waiting to be fertilized. A few years ago I follow a male of Penthophera morio (Linnaeus, 1767) - they are everywhere, females are wingless...and look what I found :    Of course after that I follow many more males, but found nothing. |
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Post by Zacatak on Jan 12, 2014 18:27:14 GMT -8
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Post by boghaunter1 on Jan 17, 2014 9:11:10 GMT -8
Hello Tim & other G. Moth enthusiasts, Those are, indeed, a nice series of Sthenopis purpurascens (back on pg. 2). This sp. can be very common in light traps, as was also the case here in NE SK in the summer of 2013. Overlapping generations ensure some specimens are observed every yr. I had the good fortune to collect 3 additional males (again at light traps) last summer.... normally males are rarely attracted to light traps... females more so... the exact opposite to most moth spp.; 2 of the males are the dark grey form & the other the more common salmon-pink fm.. My specimens are still on the boards... I am uploading again (these were shown in the old forum) a couple of photos of a pr. of S. purpurascens that I caught one evening in 2008. I noticed them in my yd., bobbing around some lower hanging spruce tree limbs, & when I walked over & turned away briefly to check one of my light traps... in the meantime they had hooked up... details on the photos. The male in the photo is an aberrant (albinistic?)... he is a beautiful "ghostly" white.... normally they are as mentioned before... normal salmon-pink or dark grey. John K.   |
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Post by vgashtarov on Jan 17, 2014 12:25:15 GMT -8
Very nice specimens ! I still do not have any materials from North America.
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Post by timsbugs on Jan 17, 2014 17:17:15 GMT -8
Hello Tim & other G. Moth enthusiasts, Those are, indeed, a nice series of Sthenopis purpurascens (back on pg. 2). This sp. can be very common in light traps, as was also the case here in NE SK in the summer of 2013. Overlapping generations ensure some specimens are observed every yr. I had the good fortune to collect 3 additional males (again at light traps) last summer.... normally males are rarely attracted to light traps... females more so... the exact opposite to most moth spp.; 2 of the males are the dark grey form & the other the more common salmon-pink fm.. My specimens are still on the boards... I am uploading again (these were shown in the old forum) a couple of photos of a pr. of S. purpurascens that I caught one evening in 2008. I noticed them in my yd., bobbing around some lower hanging spruce tree limbs, & when I walked over & turned away briefly to check one of my light traps... in the meantime they had hooked up... details on the photos. The male in the photo is an aberrant (albinistic?)... he is a beautiful "ghostly" white.... normally they are as mentioned before... normal salmon-pink or dark grey. John K. View AttachmentView AttachmentYes I remember this post, it helped spark my interest in this moth (thank you)! You live in a great area to observe these amazing creatures. As you may have noted, John, I caught mine in your "back yard". I also collected 3 here in Regina in my back yard. Hunting them is the most adventurist type of collecting that I've ever done! (it's right up there with catching caiman [crocodiles] at night by hand in the Amazon swamp) I head out just before dusk on my quad (4 wheel ATV)that is equipped with lots of candle power. Plus I wear 2 HID head lamps giving me 180 degrees of vision. I use a 36 inch net and still have a lot of misses! I hunt in areas that are half grass land, half poplar forest. The problem lies with the tall (3ft) grass and large (2ft) rocks. I have lots of scars to prove this hunting is not for the faint of heart. But I am able to cover a lot of ground in a short time. I have not spent any time looking for "hooked up" pairs hanging from branches but I think that is a great idea! I can't wait till next summer! Tim |
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evra
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Post by evra on Jan 18, 2014 8:27:16 GMT -8
North America doesn't really have great Hepialid fauna. Almost all of the species are confined to either the north woods of the very northern U.S. and southern Canada, or at high elevation in various mountain ranges, especially the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas. The largest genus is Gazoryctra I believe, which are the only Hepialids that I've collected personally.
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Post by boghaunter1 on Jan 18, 2014 9:42:59 GMT -8
Hey Tim,
OHhhh.....Ouch.... My old bones & aching back could not take a pounding like that! ... just be careful young Doherty... a single serious fall on a rock could end your collecting career... check areas along water with willows & alders...
As to N. Am. having a poor/boring Hepialid fauna... Perhaps... I am certainly no expert but it seems hepialids are a very small family worldwide with some extremely rare & desirable spp. Look at recent ebay auctions... large or colorful spp. from exotic locations (S.E. Asia, New Zealand. Australia, etc.) sell for hundreds of dollars (almost on par with the Ornithoptera... only some spp. are many times rarer or even still undescribed). The fact that there are a limited number of spp., with some of them being extremely rare/huge/spectacular, makes them highly desirable & collectable... Here in SK. I have only collected 4-5 spp. with 2 of them being so rare not even the prov. museum have specimens. Just the fact that some spp. are extremely rare (see my post at the beginning of this thread re: Sthenopis thule) can certainly discourage some collectors... hahaha ... I waited 37 yrs., collecting in the exact same location (my yd.), to discover S. thule...
John K.
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Post by timsbugs on Jan 18, 2014 10:22:19 GMT -8
North America doesn't really have great Hepialid fauna. Almost all of the species are confined to either the north woods of the very northern U.S. and southern Canada, or at high elevation in various mountain ranges, especially the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas. The largest genus is Gazoryctra I believe, which are the only Hepialids that I've collected personally. Gazoryctra hyperborea I don't come across them very often and when I do, never in very good condition. Tim Attachments:
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Post by timsbugs on Jan 18, 2014 16:00:41 GMT -8
Hey Tim, OHhhh.....Ouch.... My old bones & aching back could not take a pounding like that! ... just be careful young Doherty... a single serious fall on a rock could end your collecting career... check areas along water with willows & alders... As to N. Am. having a poor/boring Hepialid fauna... Perhaps... I am certainly no expert but it seems hepialids are a very small family worldwide with some extremely rare & desirable spp. Look at recent ebay auctions... large or colorful spp. from exotic locations (S.E. Asia, New Zealand. Australia, etc.) sell for hundreds of dollars (almost on par with the Ornithoptera... only some spp. are many times rarer or even still undescribed). The fact that there are a limited number of spp., with some of them being extremely rare/huge/spectacular, makes them highly desirable & collectable... Here in SK. I have only collected 4-5 spp. with 2 of them being so rare not even the prov. museum have specimens. Just the fact that some spp. are extremely rare (see my post at the beginning of this thread re: Sthenopis thule) can certainly discourage some collectors... hahaha ... I waited 37 yrs., collecting in the exact same location (my yd.), to discover S. thule... John K. "check areas along water with willows & alders..." I have just the place that I have never tried yet, thanks for the tip! I will be sure to pass on the results. Tim |
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Post by joee30 on Jan 30, 2014 12:43:06 GMT -8
I'm wondering where in the Sierra Nevadas the one sp. of Hepialid is found?
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evra
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Post by evra on Jan 30, 2014 14:08:51 GMT -8
There's more than one in the Sierra Nevada, but there aren't lots of species. Probably the biggest is Paraphymatopus behrensi. There are some other smaller ones in the genus Gazoryctra as well, like G. mcglashani and G. lemberti, which are super rare in collections.
I'm not an expert on these or Hepialids in general. But my experience with Gazoryctra is that you basically wait for a cold, wet night around a new moon during their flight time (usually June or July). Then you scatter blacklight bucket traps around a high elevation meadow before dark. You pick up the traps about a half an hour after dark, and if you're lucky you get one or two Hepialids. It requires a combination of sort of unusual weather conditions coupled with a 30 minute flight time per night. That's why they are so rare in collections and considered to be difficult to collect. Also, they aren't in every high elevation meadow, but only certain ones here and there, so you need to know where to look. I'm not sure how good of field notes McGlashan and Lembert took, not to mention that was over a hundred years ago when they were collecting, so finding the particular meadow where they took the type specimens might be impossible now.
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