Great year for Catocala

[Leptraps at aol.com]

I began bait trapping this season here in central Kentucky in early May with 6 traps and as of 3 July, I have a total of 26 traps set out in Scott, Franklin, Woodford, Fayetter, and Jessamine counties. All the traps but two are flat bottm type and two are my lastest design yet to be named. I use bait traps with fermenting fruit primarily for moths, but anything that will visit fermenting fruit will also become entrapped, including butterflies. I use rotting meat (Frogs, Toads and a snake run through a blender or better known around my house as reptilian copped meat!) for Nymphalids, especially Polygonia species.  I check my traps daily and here is a short list of some of the species I have taken:

It has been a great year for Catocala!

C. ilia
C. ultronia
C. grynea
C. amica
C. crategae
C. piatrix
C. palaeogama
C. nebulosa
C. coccinata
C. mycronympha
C. judith
C. epione
C. dejecta
C. retecta
C. electa
C. innubens
C. habulis
C. obscura
C. insolabilis
C. maestosa
C. subnata
C. neogama
C. cerogama
C. amatrix
C. illecta
C. Clintoni
C. connubialis

Butterflies to date:

Basilarchia archippus
B. arthemus astyanax
Vanessa atalanta
Polygonia interrogantionis
P. comma
Nymphalis antiopa
Phyciodes tharos
Astreocampa celtis
A. clyton
E. anthedon
E. portlandia(?) It is not E. p. missarkae which occurs in the western part of the state.
Megisto cymela
Hermeuptycia sosybius
Cyllopsis gemma
Cercyonis pegala alope (F. carolina?) I have found both forms in the same trap. Here’s a good 
             one for Ron Gatrelle to  work on, eastern C. pegala. Talk about subspecies!!!
Cercyonis pegala nephele

The most interesting take was Atilides halesus. I set out a trap near the Keeneland Race Track in Lexington, Fayette County among some pecan trees looking for C. aggripina. I trapped a total of 6 males and 3 females of Atlides halesus in three days in one trap. The trap was hung over thirty feet above the ground. I have taken this species in traps in Georgia and Florida, but only as single specimens. I noticed during the winter that mistletoe was abundant in the tree in the area. 

So far, this has been a great year for Lepidoptera here in Kentucky.  

The original adult flight Megisto cymela was mid May here in Kentucky, I saw the last individual in early June. However, there is another flight beginning June 30. Although not as common, I have taken over a dozen individuals. The genitalia are identical. Evidently it is a second brood, OR, a second population of the same species that emerges at a different time. I have four females that I have oviposited over 50 eggs. We shall see next year. 

Cheers,

Leroy C. Koehn
Georgetown, KY


 
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