Alaskan moth stray

James Kruse fnjjk1 at uaf.edu
Wed Oct 17 20:45:31 EDT 2001


on 10/17/01 12:12 AM, Jaakko Kullberg at jaakko.kullberg at helsinki.fi wrote:

>> Looks like the Buldir Island Alaska stray is Eudocima tyrranus (Guenée,

> species name is tyrannus!

Thanks, and please excuse the occasional expression of my mild form of
dyslexia (I switch certain letters sometimes, double some and not others,
but I'm 'on to myself', usually).

> It should be possible for the species to fly by it's own if the winds have
> been from SW. In fact I think it is far more likely that the moth did it by
> itself! A. tyrannus is native or regular also in the Russian Far East where
> many "subtropical" species occur mixed with the boreal ones - especially on
> the coast.

Okay. My reasoning was that the specimen was very fresh looking, and some
major transcontinental shipping lanes go pretty close to it. All this and
the genus has a history (E. materna especially) of hitching rides on
vehicles such as ships. Of course, the genus also has a history of long
distance flight dispersal. So more likely? maybe. Far more likely? I don't
know. 

I'd be interested in hearing of other records of E. tyrannus in North
America, if any are known. I suspect there are no others. So the challenge
is issued....

James J. Kruse, Ph.D.
Curator of Entomology
University of Alaska Museum
907 Yukon Drive
Fairbanks, AK, USA 99775-6960
tel 907.474.5579
fax 907.474.1987
http://www.uaf.edu/museum/ento



 
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