'Endangered' Luna Moths

[Dr. James Adams]

James Kruse responded to Chuck Vaugn:
> 
> Chuck Vaughn wrote:
> > 300 miles must be an exaggeration because a 300 mile radius from Chicago
> > extends into several states. Has anybody placed a captive female outside
> > to see if any males arrive?
> 
> Luna moths are abundant in Newburg, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee.
> I have also collected them 2 miles south of West Bend, Wisconsin.
> 
> > The strangest experience occurred last June when I had a female Cecropia
> > confined to a cage outside. She attracted a male Ceanothus moth!
> 
> Actually, the species in the genus Hyalophora have very similar pheromone.
> I have attracted H. columbia in the UP of Michigan using cecropia females,
> and also H. euryalis (ceanothus moth) in California using cecropia
> females. Hybrids are exquisite...

Actually, the Ceanothus Moth is in the genus Samia, though even
intergeneric similarities in pheromones are reasonably common in the 
saturniids.  The likelihood of this cross-generic attraction is made 
even more reasonable when one realizes that the Ceanothus Moth is an 
import -- as Cecropia and Ceanothus moths would not have originally 
been found together in nature, there would certainly have been no 
possibility for confusion and no selection for different pheromonal 
concoctions.

James Adams