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Post by coloradeo on Jul 26, 2018 4:41:26 GMT -8
So there has been a lot of good discussion over the years on this site about collecting in SE Arizona. South Texas is good and has some unique stuff too, right? Maybe not the same stuff coming off the Sonoran desert, but still there are some Rothschildia moths that appear to be only in South Texas and probably some other good collecting in other parts of Texas, especially West Texas. Also, what about the Austin and/or Houston area?
Where are the major areas to collect in Texas? Can you actually do it or are there no "open collecting areas" like the National Forest land in AZ? Can you actually show up and collect near Brownsville? Love to start a thread with discussion about where you can/should collect in Texas. Any takers?
Eric
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Post by nomihoudai on Jul 26, 2018 9:31:52 GMT -8
Brownsville is surrounded by several nature reserves when I remember correctly? I was there in 2015. Most of the areas with larger vegetation are some nature reserve/ birding area of some sort. I still had a hell of a lot of fun taking pics of butterflies and birds. I didn't have a moth trap on my own so I can't tell anything about night collecting there. Best time should be September/Octobre when I remember correctly as lots of tropical butterflies migrate/hatch then. I was there in June and there wasn't much flying.
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Post by nomihoudai on Jul 26, 2018 9:35:29 GMT -8
Houston and anything north of it really is a great area to collect. I don't have much experience there as I was limited due to the lack of a car, but the area around Davy Crockett National Forest was cool. Earlier in the year we got P. glaucus and Limenitis astyanax, and later P. palamedes.
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Post by nomihoudai on Jul 26, 2018 9:38:18 GMT -8
Austin area is full grassland. I didn't collect there and would expect diversity to be a little bit less. The Houston area and anything north of it is swampy area and has a nice diversity along with the grassland species. Another area I collected at was in May in front of Big Bend (not inside! Protected area). There was lots of nice stuff flying there as there was so many flowers at that time. The only thing is the long drive over the I-10. Took me like 10 hours from Houston and I nearly ran out of gas...
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Post by 58chevy on Jul 26, 2018 18:59:13 GMT -8
There are lots of good places in TX to collect. Where you go depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for Mexican leps that stray into Texas, the Lower Rio Grande Valley (the 3 southernmost counties adjacent to the Mexican border) is the place to go. October & November are the best months. State parks & wildlife preserves in those counties are off limits, but there are places outside those areas where you can collect. I have detailed notes on how to get to many of those areas, but my notes are too lengthy to describe in this forum. East TX is good for swallowtails, large silkmoths & sphinx moths from March through October. You can collect pretty much anywhere. National Forests are good (Sam Houston & Davy Crockett). I collect at gas stations a lot, although the collecting is not as good as it used to be because the gas stations have switched from MV lights to LED. If you're looking for beetles, you can find some really cool species in various parts of the state. West TX has several nice species of large buprestids as well as Chrysina woodi & gloriosa (Davis Mts.) The area south of San Antonio has Megasoma vogti, Callona rimosa, Trachyderes mandibularis, Phanaeus difformis, Stenaspis verticalis insignis, Amblicheila hoversoni, just to name a few. If you go to that area in September after a rain, you can get M. vogti, Eupackardia calleta, Sphingicampa heiligbrodti, & some nice sphinx moth species on the same weekend if you're lucky. If there are specific bugs you're after, post the species & I'll tell you where to find them.
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