"Thousands" of BWMs on Grand Isle, LA, post TS Cindy - July 2005

[Mike Quinn]

Have slowly been getting more information on the HUGE Black Witch moth
(Ascalapha odorata) fallout following Tropical Storm Cindy on Grand
Isle, Louisiana from Wayne Keller
<www.gulfbase.org/person/view.php?uid=wkeller>

=========================================

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Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 8:35 AM

The eye basically passed directly over us.  We had tremendous rain,
substantial wind  then about 2 hours of calm.  Then it hit, winds from
the North at 70-80mph..

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Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 10:11 AM

I wound have to say thousands, as I have been seeing numerous moths
everywhere I go. And the people on the island keep calling. They think
they are butterflies that escaped when the Grand Isle Butterfly Dome was
destroyed in the storm.  I am the editor of the local paper, and did an
article on black witches, after a smaller fallout last year.   I am
having to educate people numerous times every day, explaining that they
are not butterflies or BATS.

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Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 1:51 PM

After Tropical storm/Hurricane Cindy the island is Full of Black Witch
Moths

Wayne Keller
Grand Isle Port Commission
(504) 415-0102

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Wayne Keller's observations closely mirror those of Brush Freeman's
observations of BWMs associated with Hurricane Claudette:

Freeman, B. 2003. A Fallout of Black Witches (Ascalapha odorata)
Associated with Hurricane Claudette. News of the Lepidopterists'
Society. 45(3):71. http://tinyurl.com/asequ

Similarities include:

***Intensity: both storms borderer between Tropical Storm and Hurricane
categories;

***Date of Land Fall:

TS Cindy: July 5, 2005

Hurr. Claudette: July 15, 2003

***Location of observations: both were made at the point where the eye
came ashore which was right on the Gulf coast:

Grand Isle, LA: http://tinyurl.com/aho45 

Port O'Connor: http://tinyurl.com/bhtle

***Origin: significantly, both storms brushed the Yucatan Peninsula
before crossing the Gulf of Mexico:

TS Cindy tracking map 
www.atmos.umd.edu/~stevenb/hurr/05/cindy/cindy.gif

TS/Hurricane Claudette tracking map 
www.atmos.umd.edu/~stevenb/hurr/03/claudette/claudette.gif

***Number of Moths: I often receive reports of BWMs near where
hurricanes or tropical storms come ashore, but most reports are in the
10s range, not the 100s to 1000s range.

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Illustrations of Hurricane wind dynamics:

vertical cross section through a category 3 hurricane 
http://tinyurl.com/7rhjm 
(move cursor over letters to see wind speeds)

animated vertical cross section of a hurricane's circulation
http://tinyurl.com/cqlq7

horizontal cross section of a hurricane
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/Choctaw.JPG

horizontal cross section showing winds relative to the eye. 
http://tinyurl.com/bv98y

Computer model of three-dimensional hurricane wind circulation
http://www.ems.psu.edu/~nese/f11_14_2.htm

===========================================

Mike Quinn, Austin

__________________________________
Natural History of the Black Witch 
http://www.TexasEnto.net/witch.htm  



 
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