Just caught a large Agrius Cingulata by vapor light..very nice!

[Ted]

I have caught a few of these the last few weeks at my vapor light i run nightly.
it was cool..there were midges swarming everywhere, and each time one landed on the moth, the moth would throw back it's wings, defensively as if annoyed.flashing the beautiful pink underside.
went immediately into the freezer, for a perfect specimen to mount later.

 

[ahas]

That' s nice. Love the pink colour.

 

[Ted]

That' s nice. Love the pink colour.

thanks!
yes, they are a beautiful species..with other members having yellows, and other nice colors

 

[Curry]

Those are beautiful moths!

 

[Ted]

Those are beautiful moths!

its really cool when they are on a wall or tree, and you go too close to them, they flap their wings up fast, exposing the pink..and its startling if you arent expecting it.

 

[thedude]

pink spotted hawk moth FTW!! i only have one of those! where did you catch it?? this is the only sphinx i really love caus of the odd coloring lol

ted your the shiz LOL

and in the pick she looks pregnant... was she?

 

[Ted]

pink spotted hawk moth FTW!! i only have one of those! where did you catch it?? this is the only sphinx i really love caus of the odd coloring lol

ted your the shiz LOL

and in the pick she looks pregnant... was she?

thanks, dude-man!
i caugh several of them this year..i run a vapor light 7 days a week, and at certain times get various sphinx species.
not all were collected in Dallas..but all over Texas.
this year i collected multiple Xylophanes tersa,Hiles lineata,
Ceratomia catalpae,and C. Undulosa, Manduca quinquemaculatus,Manduca rustica,M. sexta,and others.
Also caught this year are some from the Smerinthini group, such as
Amorpha juglandis,Pachysphinx modesta,Paonias excaecata,and even some
Smerinthus jamaicensis!
the list goes on and on!!
so many great Sphingids here!

 

[ArachnoYak]

Too Bad

There are some of us that can enjoy the experience of witnessing a natural beauty like that without wondering how much better it would look with a pin through it. I've always been fascinated with all kinds of lepidopterids and I think it's great that you enjoy collecting them, I just prefer to enjoy them without killing them. Or at least if you want to collect them, learn enough about their life-cycle that you are able to obtain eggs from a female or even a brood of caterpillars that you can raise one summer and release. That way you give back more than you take from nature. Let's hear it for sustainable insect harvests!

 

[Ted]

There are some of us that can enjoy the experience of witnessing a natural beauty like that without wondering how much better it would look with a pin through it. I've always been fascinated with all kinds of lepidopterids and I think it's great that you enjoy collecting them, I just prefer to enjoy them without killing them. Or at least if you want to collect them, learn enough about their life-cycle that you are able to obtain eggs from a female or even a brood of caterpillars that you can raise one summer and release. That way you give back more than you take from nature. Let's hear it for sustainable insect harvests!

who said all i do is catch them and kill them?
i get the feeling you think i am some sort of backwoods insect pin wielding bug killer.
that's a left field assumption, and am sorry if i didnt make it clear before what i do.
you must have missed the pictures of my breeding these moths...i have even bred the largest and most difficult species of moths in the world as well.
i also sleeve and study clutches of caterpillars too.

i know plenty about their cycles,and do quite well at it.
so i do appreciate your interest and concern for wild populations..but i do give back more than i take in the end..and share data about host plants, cycles,parsites, and egg counts.
in order to keep the gene pool fresh i trade with other breeders and collectors form all over texas and elsewhere they naturally occur and we each scatter cocoons around our woods and parks.

 

[thedude]

dude your soo lucky... but when ever i say that i alwase think do you midwest/west coats people say the same thing about us east coasters

 

[Ted]

dude your soo lucky... but when ever i say that i alwase think do you midwest/west coats people say the same thing about us east coasters

true, true!!
i haven't been to the east coast as of yet.
i am dying to get there one year.

 

[ArachnoYak]

I stand corrected

Thanks for the clarity, I was completely unaware. Very impressive. Keep up the good work. Never have I been so glad to be wrong about somebody.

 

[Ted]

Thanks for the clarity, I was completely unaware. Very impressive. Keep up the good work. Never have I been so glad to be wrong about somebody.

no prob at all..it happens all the time.
i do also give presentations and help out at the zoos and museums helping educate other folks too..teaching stuff like preservation and control through relocation as opposed to pesticides, being that many sphinx are larval pests of gardens and tree nurseries.

 

[Curry]

Im the pin weilding bug killer if anything. LOL.

 

[Ted]

Im the pin weilding bug killer if anything. LOL.

do tell!
..........

eta..i just noticed your signature and link.
cool deal..I have over three thousand in my collection atm..and that doesnt cover the freezer stash.
eventually they die..i enjoy preserving them afterwards..its a nice tribute to their beauty and place in this big world.

 

[thedude]

who said all i do is catch them and kill them?
that's a left field assumption, and am sorry if i didnt make it clear before what i do.
you must have missed the pictures of my breeding these moths...i have even bred the largest and most difficult species of moths in the world as well.
i also sleeve and study clutches of caterpillars as well.

i know plenty about their cycles,and do quite well at it.
so i do appreciate your interest and concern for wild populations..but i do give back more than i take in the end..and share data about host plants, cycles, and egg counts.
in order to keep the gene pool fresh i trade with other breeders and collectors form all over texas and elsewhere they naturally occur and we each scatter cocoons around our woods and parks.

i agree... i do the same thing w/ local moths of all sorts... infact ive got 9 promethea moth cacoons that are gonna hatch next summer and im gonna let some go and then also mate some to keep for another generation

 

[thedude]

do tell!
..........

eta..i just noticed your signature and link.
cool deal..I have over three thousand in my collection atm..and that doesnt cover the freezer stash.
eventually they die..i enjoy preserving them afterwards..its a nice tribute to their beauty and place in this big world.

lol sounds like me but most of my stock is frozen atm... getting rid of dermestids. but i still have a nice ammount of pinned stuff prolly reaching 1000

 

[Ted]

lol sounds like me but most of my stock is frozen atm... getting rid of dermestids. but i still have a nice ammount of pinned stuff prolly reaching 1000

thats incredible as well!
i too am having some serious issues with dermestids.
i need a huge deep freeze.
am afraid to use toxins to kill them, because of my live inverts.

 

[Ted]

i agree... i do the same thing w/ local moths of all sorts... infact ive got 9 promethea moth cacoons that are gonna hatch next summer and im gonna let some go and then also mate some to keep for another generation

promethia are fabulous!
i collected a few in far east texas last year..very rare to find there!:clap:

 

[Farom]

I've attempted multiple times to breed the moths(talking saturniids here, ive had success with monarchs and painted ladies), but the males and females never hatch in time. I even raised some cecropias from egg, although I only ended up with three cocoons(no idea how that happened, lol, had 40 eggs to start with, guess it comes with being a noobie) they all hatched in spring. I finally got a female around two days after the last male died.
Ted, if you have any extra cocoons(any species) that you might be interested in trading for some exotic mantids, send me a PM. I wouldn't mind raising another batch once spring rolls around again.