NEWSLETTER of the Wisconsin Entomological Society Volume 13, Number 2 Editor: Mark H. Evans Fall 1985 A major purpose of the Wisconsin Entomological Society (WES) and of this Newsletter is to promote the study of Entomology in ail of its branches, especially as it relates to Wisconsin and the surrounding states, and to facilitate and encourage the exchange of specimens and ideas by both professional and amateur ent omo l og is t s . Materials for publication consideration are solicited from the membership. If possible, items should be typed and double- spaced. Feature articles, notices, selected references, publications of members, collection records, specimen requests and news of members are among those items we would like to receive. Deadlines for the Newsletter are 1 March for the March/April issue, and l September for the September/Oc tober issue. Materials should be sent to the Newsletter Editor (see be low) . 1985 OFFICERS OF THE WISCONSIN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY: President Dan Young Vice-president Sue Borkin Secretary. Phil Pellitteri Treasurer Les Ferge Past-president ; Bob Jeanne Newsletter Editor Mark Evans EDITOR'S NOTES: The members of your Society's Executive Board would like to welcome all of you out there in Readership Land back to another beautiful Wisconsin fall! We hope you had a great field season even if it's not quite over yet (as here in the swallowtail lab where we are trying our best to hurry along the last straggling larvae) . Further, I would like to again extend thanks to those members who have contributed notes and ideas to this newsletter. Your next issue will be on the other side of winter, so you've all got lots of time to send us notes of your experiences, collecting sites, observations, or thoughts on the seasons past or the ones ahead. Please keep sharing as we all benefit that way ! PLEASE TAKE A SPECIAL NOTE OF THIS MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT W )/ AS YOU WILL NOT RECIEVE A SEPARATE NOTICE: Sat. 26 Oct. 1 985 meeting will be in Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The invertebrate collection will be open from 10 A.M. until 1 P.M. The meeting starts at 1:30. This will be our 3 rd Annual Photo Salon and everyone is welcome to enter. PLEASE NOTE THE LOOSE INSERT IN THIS NEWSLETTER. IT IS TO BE FILLED OUT BY EACH ENTRANT WITH PHOTOS SUBMITTED. Following the meeting, we will dine in a restauraunt nearby. (If there are questions, please call Sue Borkin at 414-278- 2758. ) WES SUMMER WEEKEND F IELDTRIP TO CEDARBURG BOG: The summer get-together/ fieldtrip/ collecting trip was held at the UW-milwaukee Field Station on the weekend of 2-4 August. Some of those who attended may be providing summaries of their experiences or material collected later on for a future newsletter. In the meantime, we thought that we would include a good map of how to get to the area, provided by the Field Station in their June 1985 Newsletter: CUT ALONG DOTTED LINE WISCONSIN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY PHOTO SALON ENTRY FORM NAME OF ENTRANT Please complete this form and submit it with your slides before the start of the program. Use one section for each slide entered, up to the limit of five slides. This information will be read at the program by a narrator; therefore, clarity and legibility of writing are most important. Please use the following format: A. Title of slide; B. Brief explanation (narrative style); Cr Subject locality; D. Photographic equipment/technique. Slide #1 A. B. C. P. Slide #2 A. B. C. D. Slide #3 A. B. C. D. Slide #4 A. B. C. D. Slide #5 A. B. C. D. Also, Walt Gould provided the following species list of butterflies which he saw there: Danaid ae : Nymphal idae : Hesperiidae : Lyc aenidae : P ier id ae : Pap i 1 ionidae : Satyr idae : Danaus plexippus - Monarch Bo lor ia selene - Silver Bordered Fritillary Nymphal i s antiopa - Morning Cloak Phyciodes tharos - Pearl Crescent Speyeria cybele - Great Spangled Fritillary Vanessa atalanta - Red Admiral Polites themistocles - Tawny Edge Skipper Celastrina argiolus - Spring Azure Colias eurytheme - Alfalfa Butterfly Papilio polyxenes - Black Swallowtail Lethe appalachia - Appalachian Eyed Brown Cercyonis pegala - Common Wood Nymph WHAT IS THE WORD ON EVANS' CONGO TRIP? We haven't left yet! Yes that's true. But we will be getting off of the ground yet. The fact is, that with all of our gear, paperwork, and medical preparations ready at the end of March, the beginning of April arrived and money promised us from an important benefactor did not come through. With our combined gear, mostly corporate donations, valued at over $100,000 already set to go, the hard part seemed to be behind us. We started scrambling to find other sources of financial support and are still working at it very hard. So far, mostly from private donations, we have raised $28,000 in cash and pledges of our minimum goal of $50,000 to get us on our way. As we are organized within a not-for-profit research foundation, donations are tax deductable, and that has helped a great deal. We will find all the money we need somehow, and we will get this thing underway! Once we have all of the money in our team account, there will probably be about a 2 week delay before our departure. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, ideas, or advice. -Mark H. Evans. NEW MEMBERS: Steve N. Chojnacki, N 82 W 14502 Oxford St., Meno Falls, Wise. 53051 (interests are general collecting). Chad Long, 2014 So. 102 nd St., #305, West Allis, Wise. 53227 (interests include collecting, taxonomy, 4-H, and scouting). Tom McClintock, 1329 Crowley Ave . , Madison, Wise. 53704 (interests include collecting, taxonomy, life history, behavior, photography, and butterflies). Meredith Platt, 4304 N. Woodburn, Milwaukee, Wise. 53211 (interests include collecting, taxonomy, life history, behavior, and Lepidoptera) . CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Jay Turnbull, 2807 Witters, Saginaw, Mich. 48602 (interests include collecting, taxonomy, life history, behavior, Lepidoptera, and the Lyc aenidae ) . ** ** Incidentally, we'll pass on a note here which Jay sent to Les Ferge: "I am a displaced Wisconson resident who continues to collect Lepidoptera and wishes to retain membership in the WES. I am also willing to provide specimens of this area (Saginaw, Mich.) in trade for Wisconsin specimens (Lepidoptera)." OTHER CLASSIFIEDS: Ken Lange (Park Naturalist, Dept, of Natural Resources, Devil's Lake State Park, Baraboo, Wise. 53913) is very interested in any Wisconsin records for the following species of katydids: Pterophyl la camelifolia , Am blycorpha oblongifolia , A . r o t und i f o 1 i a , M ic roc en t r urn rhombifol ium , and ret inerve . If anyone has any locality info on any of these species, please contact Ken. Glass topped, standard sized, Cornell drawers for pinned inse ts (or other biological specimens or collectables) are available from Mark Evans (home phone: 231-1649) for $16 with firm fiberboard floors or $18 with polyethelene foam floors. Discounts are possible for orders of 5 or more. WISCONSIN MOTH COLLECTING HIGHLIGHTS by Les Ferge Although spring got an early start, 1985 proved to be a "hurry up and wait" season, with some early season species appearing weeks before normal. Cerisy's Sphinx ( Smerinthus c e r i s y i ) was found on April 2 2, over three weeks ahead of its usual late May emergence. The character of the weather changed as the season progressed, causing mid-to-late-season species to emerge within their usual flight period. Collecting results were the most sporadic in years, as weather conditions were problematic on many of the key weekends. The siege of hot, muggy weather in July proved to be ideal for moth collecting, but it didn't last long enough to benefit the W.E.S. Cedarburg Field Trip (Aug. 2-4), where nocturnal collecting was hampered by the unusually cold temperatures. Much of August and September continued cool and rainy. The highlight of the season was finding a new state record underwing moth, Catocala insolabilis , in Grant County at sugar bait on July 13. One of the b 1 ack-h ind w i ng Catocal a , this moth is rare, even in its main range in the southern states, and is seldom encountered north of St. Louis. Appearantly insol abil is is on the move northward, as it also has been reported in southern Michigan this year by George Balogh. It will be interesting to see if breeding populations are established and persist in these northern areas . Catocala junctura , another southern species, was found in Sauk County on July 12. Two or three specimens have been collected at this locality previously, but the species is extremely rare and. sporadic in Wisconsin. It is uncertain if a breeding population exists here. Two male and one female Imperial Moth ( E a c 1 e s imperialis ) were also collected at UV light in Grant County on July 13. Although the female was old and seemed half-dead, she managed to lay a few eggs before expiring. Two larvae survived to maturity, and pupation occurred in late September, just as finding green, palatable walnut leaves was becoming difficult. Collecting sphinx moths at Bouncing Bet flowers at dusk proved to be quite interesting this season. Several of the large green Pandora Sphinx ( Eumorpha pandorus ) were taken during July. Also seen in greater numbers was the Hermit Sphinx ( Sphinx eremitus ). I had collected a couple last season, and upon checking my records, found that it had been 14 years since I last collected this species! The Achemon Sphinx ( Eum or pha ache m on ) has been considered to be quite uncommon in southern Wisconsin. With the able assistance of Alan Therriault, I obtained larvae in what would seem to be one of the most unlikely places to look... Downtown Milwaukee! The larvae were found on Woodbine, which grows on parking lot fences beneath elevated sections of the interstate highway. The larvae are well-hidden, and very difficult to spot among the vines, but accumulations of frass on the pavement beneath makes finding them much easier than it would be in a more natural situation . SOME COLLECTING NOTES FROM TAYLOR CO., WISC. by Mark H. Evans On Fri. night, 7 June 1985, I loaded my car with some of my collecting gear and headed north to spend the weekend checking on the abundance of Papil io glaucus canadensis . I stopped off in Adams Co. due to fog and fatigue, set up my UV trap (with its collapsable holding cage, on my 500EM Honda generator that I got in March for the Congo trip, pitched my tent, and went to sleep. The generator and trap worked fine and I harvested around 150 moth-' a d wn despite cool temperatures in the 50’s. By 10 A.M. I was in northern Clarke Co., and although the day was really heating up, and I checked out several good looking clover fields, I only saw 3 canadensis . I went on into Taylor Co. and figured that I would try to find some spot in Chequamegan Nat. Forest north of Rt. 64 where I could set up one of my At least that way I could accomplish something if the butterfly collecting was a little slow. Less than a mile from the eastern border of the forest I took a little road north off Rt . 64 and found a big dirt pile in the forest from the road con- struction which was covered with brush and ferns. I stopped and checked it out. It was ideal . My malaise trap, stand- ing 8 feet tall, could be completely hidden from the road and the road itself, appeared to be very infrequently travel- ed. Further, there was a partial opening in the trees nearby with a swampy area extending out for at least a few acres. Ah! Tabanid paradise! 1 set up the trap at about 1 P.M. and left to try for butterflies where there would be more sun and flowers. Although it was breezy, the temperature went up to the high 30' s. I found good hilly clover meadows bordering woods about 15 miles away and by the time a very sweaty and tired 7 P.M. rolled around, I had collected 67 male and 32 female canadensis . I also had collected 21 monarchs (to add to the 63 which Jane Siebenhorn, Jeff Thorne, Vickie Ware, and I had collected in Langlade Co. on 6 June.) for Lincoln Brower. (Although Brower was interested m live specimens for electrophoresis to attempt to determine Asclepias species used by the larvae, I wished to also prove to him based on wing ware, that monarchs reaching Wisconsin in the spring have come all the way from Mexico. His current belief is that returning Mexican migrants reach only the southern U.S. states, and that it is their progeny which continue northward flights.) Well, anyhow, I sorted all of the day's catch and caught up my notebook, removed a few of the more obvious ticks from my clothes and body, and drove over to Sackett Lake off County Rt. E for a heavenly clean swim and a change of clothes. I got back to my hard-working malaise trap something after 8 and walked over to it in the warm, humid air in my clean feet which were just starting to enjoy their freedom from my jungle- boots to sandals after my swim. The head of the malaise trap was was full to the top of the -coital \ 3. /*>*«+;«>. \fiY '&A T*e Insects + of CAVAci4 m ffief' i. ( PzefM/vj r Ayi I*$ec'h / A;fe9 f AuJ of /ty. dying a few and the screen had dozens more uncertain way up- looked down at my were grey with female mosquitoes, that the trap could funnel with dead or tabanids along with other things trap below making there war d . Then I feet. They greatful I decided CfttauM. wa it until I got a new dose of Deep-Woods Off from my pack in the car. Finally, after cleaning up the malaise trap, I set up my generator and UV trap about a hundred feet away, and then pitched my tent. It was definately getting more windy allthe time, so to be extra safe, I parked my car 15 feet upwind of my tent and tied the lead pole to the car. right where I was, the I'm glad I did. Although it never rained wind gusts became intense. It was the next morning before I heard on the radio that that storm generated tornadoes, one of which killed a couple of people in neighboring Oneida Co. By morning the sky was grey and the winds were still blowing strong so I packed up my equipment and headed back south to Madison. Despite the winds during the night, the UV trap extremely successful and I collected over 300 good quality moths including 6 species of sphinxes, several polyphemus, and 3 lunas. There was also a neat variety of beetles and other taxa which I removed from the trap cage. The malaise trap had collected over 1000 tabanids the previous day as well, so it felt like a successful weekend all the way around even though Sunday did not seem to be all that cooperative. (Eventually, I'll get a species list of tabanids from these Wisconsin captures from Dr. Pechuman, and we'll get it into one of these newsletters. I think that the diversity will be interesting to everyone.) PAST MEETINGS: On Satuday, 11 May, we had our last formal meeting with a 5 part program covering some entomological techniques. These were as f ol lows : Why collect insects? by Bob Jeanne Selected collecting t echnique s , . . by Les Ferge Feild & curatorial techniques .... by Wally Kmentt Labelling specimens by Dan Young Rearing techniques by Mark Evans Following the meeting, we ate dinner together at a local rest aur ant . Due to the exceptional quality of some illustrations Wally brought with him for his presentation, we reduced and inserted them here as a reference for our entire membership. FlatT^-an View ZS To .3 8 VAJVDE Section A Section B Fut ®! f 1.0 .til* 1 — r | liE m ■•ill Sect\oh C Hoot* Re\M POKCtMENT Haters v_s.: Key N't'Udm CrtiFFt>v4 ' «3>LO *Aft.O * «5Ft. ! Sxi-rcHiM^ Liwe 1 Butterfly Met 1Bac> ilHlQO'P 'Des^n E>y VV.E.,VEVotT :i V0». ) 535\l ( 3