Hemileuca eglanterina

Laurel Godley godley at hotmail.com
Wed Sep 8 11:55:35 EDT 1999


What an unmitigated treat I had this weekend!  I saw my first ever hemileuca 
eglanterina (common or western sheepmoth.)  The poor thing was bouncing off 
the road outside of Lassen National Park as I was homing in on a roadside 
patch of ascelpias speciosa.  From a distance, I naturally thought it was a 
monarch that had been hit by a passing car.  But as I approached and picked 
it up I realised it was something else entirely despite the similar size and 
orangish-pink coloring.

The puzzle was resolved later when I stopped by the park gift store to pick 
up a copy of the recently published "Discovering the Butterflies of Lassen 
Volcanic Park."  The author included a single plate of day-flying moths and 
there it was!  So now I have a name.  Fortunately, as I know little or 
nothing of moths and would have been hard pressed to name it.

So I'm wondering if anyone can provide me with more detailed life history 
beyond that which is found on the USGS webpage.  This lil guy is really 
interesting and I'd like to know more about him. Jim K., you might actually 
get me interested in moths after all!

Incidentally, there were no monarchs to be found at aforementioned patch.  
Despite this being the largest patch of wild milkweed I've seen to date, 
there were no caterpillars not even a chew mark to imply there had ever been 
one.  At another smaller patch, I found only one post emerged pupa case but 
again no larva.  Bad year I guess, the butterflying was generally dismal at 
my local.  The only species present was the california sister at the water 
fountain in Burney Falls State Park that proceeded to land repeatedly on a 
lady and her toddlers.  The little girls got quite a kick out of it though.

Laurel
back home in Silicon Valley



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