Re: Vulcan Tiger Moth @ Gómez Farías , Tamps - 4-X-1986

Mike Quinn entomike at gmail.com
Sun Apr 6 19:21:02 EDT 2008


Doug,

Many folks got their first introduction to the tropics around Gomez
Farias. A quarter million acre biosphere reserve was established there
in 1985. UT Brownsville maintains a field station that they've
operated there for over 40 years. Recently a festival has been held
there twice annually. See also, book, checklist, and mas lep pix
links. Mike

-------------------------

Festival:

El Cielo Nature Festival - 2008
February 28 - March 2, 2008
Cd. Mante, Tamaulipas, MEXICO
sortiz at teledinamica.com.mx
Phone 011-52(81)8378-5926
www.elcielofestival.com/
Annually Since 2004

map: http://tinyurl.com/63zhkx

-------------------------

Field Station:

Rancho Del Cielo is one of two field stations that the Gorgas Science
Foundation, Inc. maintains in the Gomez Farias area of southern
Tamaulipas. This is the northern-most cloud forest in the Western
Hemisphere. Within a twenty mile radius of the field station are eight
distinct forest ecosystems. The "El Cielo" area is considered so
important to the floral and faunal history of North America that it
was protected under the guidelines of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere
program of the United Nations.
http://www.gorgassciencefoundation.org/elcielo.html

--------------------

Book:

The Road to El Cielo: Mexico's Forest in the Clouds
 By Fred Webster, Marie S. Webster. 2001. UT Press. 265 pp.
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/webroa.html

Google preview: http://tinyurl.com/5j6xx2

---------------------

Chapter on El Cielo within History of UT Brownsville:

The First 70 Years - A History of Higher Education in Brownsville
Chapter 6: A Scientific Facility in Mexico: Rancho Del Cielo and
Rancho El Cielito

http://pubs.utb.edu/anniversary/first70years/chapter-6.htm

------------------

25 page bird checklist:

Birds of the Gomez Farias Region, Southwestern Tamaulipas, Mexico
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0682.pdf
or: http://tinyurl.com/4ls5fn

----------------------------------

A few more killer leps from GF:

Decorated Beauty
Anaxita decorata Walker, 1855
http://www.texasento.net/Anaxita.htm

Princely Tiger Moth
Chrysocale principalis (Walker, 1864)
http://www.texasento.net/principalis.htm

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Doug Yanega <dyanega at ucr.edu>
Date: Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 3:09 PM

 Having collected in that exact locality myself, I can happily attest
to the remarkable fauna (well more than just the leps) of Rancho El
Cielo in Gómez Farías - it represents an extreme northward extension
of some very tropical elements, almost literally at their absolute
limit: just a matter of kilometers farther north, the habitat changes,
and that's that. This sort of biogeographic pattern is quite dramatic
in that general region of Mexico (especially in San Luís Potosí),
where one can go from tropical lowland jungle fauna/flora to temperate
pine/oak woodlands simply by driving about 20 km along a highway that
changes elevation and cuts across the interdigitated stripes of
different ecotypes. There are some truly special places there, and one
can only hope that they are recognized as such, and given some measure
of protection accordingly.

 Peace,
 --

 Doug Yanega


 
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