The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Technical Bulletins Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station 12-1-1973 TB66: A List of the Lepidoptera of Maine: Part 1 Macrolepidoptera Auburn E. Brower James W. Longest Louis A. Ploch Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_techbulletin Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Brower, A.E. 1973. A list of the Lepidoptera of Maine--Part 1 the Macrolepidoptera. Life Sciences and Agriculture Experiment Station Technical Bulletin 66. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Technical Bulletins by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A LIST OF THE LEPIDOPTERA OF MAINE - PART 1 THE MACROLEPIDOPTERA Auburn E. Brower Northwest Plateau. Mt. Katahdin, Maine Prostrate mats of fir and spruce, commonly single trees. The foreground with lichens, reindeer lichens, prostrate heaths and willows, with upright clumps of sedges 6 10 inches) which die back each fall. LIFE SCIENCES AND AGRICULTURE EXPERIMENT STATION UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT ORONO A LIST OF THE LEPIDOPTERA OF MAINE PART I MACROLEPIDOPTERA AUBURN E. BROWER* A well-done list of the insects of a State is of continuous value to entomologists, and is used as a reference work and source of informa­ tion by workers in many other disciplines. After many years of work on general entomology in Maine, I find that I still refer for answers to questions to what I consider to be the best State list of insects - "A List of the Insects of New York'' by M. D. Leonard; just as I turn to similar works on birds, plants and other biological groups for similar informa­ tion. The New England area has no satisfactory State list of insects. Maine has been fortunate in having one of the best and most comprehensive local lists in the United States - the William Procter list "Biological Sur­ vey of the Mount Desert Region - The Insect Fauna", Vols. VI and VII (1938 and 1946); however, this covers a limited insular fauna. It was privately printed and quite limited in distribution. Protruding so far to the northeast, Maine is particularly in need of its own insect list. An annotated list can give a great deal of supple­ mentary information which will serve to answer part of the questions which arise concerning individual species of insects. Repeatedly having a personal and professional need for a Maine list, I have, during over 40 years of active entomological work in Maine, continually gathered specimens and records toward such a list. I ac­ tively participated in the accumulation of the records for the Procter list and supplied many records for Farquhar's "A List of the Lepidoptera of New England," an unpublished Ph.D. thesis (Harvard). A preliminary descriptive list of the butterflies of Maine was pub­ lished by C. H. Fernald in 1884, and in 1934 C. F. dos Passos and L. P. Grey published a more complete and a partially annotated list of the butterflies of Maine. Later (1956), I assisted the Portland Society of Natural History in putting out a more complete and up-to-date list of Maine butterflies which was more generally distributed in Maine. Pro­ fessor Fernald published a number of important papers on Lepidoptera between 1878 and 1905, and Mrs. Fernald published in the Canadian Entomologist in 1884 three lists of the larger moths which she collected * Visiting Professor of Entomology, University of Maine at Orono; mail address: 8 Hospital Street, Augusta, Maine 04330. LSA EXPERIMENT STATION TECHNICAL BULLETIN 66 Figure 2. Raised bog: Addison, grassy sphagnum—heath plants on one of the unique raised bogs of southeast Maine. Figure 1. Kettle Hole Bog, Belgrade, Maine. Quaking sphagnum, black-spruce bog with deep water hole and high glacial esker, "horseback"; sundew, cranberry, pitcher-plant, leatherleaf and other acid soil plants and low heaths grow here. In background, larch and a number of higher shrubs, LEPIDOPTERA IN MAINE 3 Figure 3. The Saco Heath: many species of heath plants with sphagnum and Coast White Cedar, Chamaecyparis. 4 LSA EXPERIMENT STATION TECHNICAL BULLETIN 66 at light at Orono. C. O. Dirks (1937) published a list of the cutworm moths and larger moths taken during four summer seasons on the Orono campus. John C. Parlin published in the Maine Naturalist 1922-23-24 records of Lepidoptera from Albion, Freedom and other places. Some of these records are quite questionable and since the collection was destroyed by flood, only parts of these records are used, some with quali­ fication. The old practice of putting only a date label on the specimens in some collections often leads to uncertainty. Frederick Allen Eddy of Bangor followed this practice and he purchased or exchanged for speci­ mens similarly labelled, particularly the whole collection of G. R. Pilate of Cincinnati, Ohio. After the Eddy collection was bequeathed to Har­ vard University, printed F. A. Allen labels were applied to all specimens, and some workers have mistaken out-of-state specimens as originating in Maine. The value of any insect list depends basically upon the authenticity of the determinations of the included species. Many of the older determi­ nations arc of uncertain value, because we do not know what the author hud or saw, as a basis for listing the name. The number of species to be taken in an area was then thought to be much fewer than we now know to be the true situation since closely similar species had often not yet been separated, and sibling species were not yet differentiated. All of this led to putting more than one species under one name. Original types had not been carefully checked in many cases (which is most important) and the very important genitalia had had but little study up to that time. Many places still exist in our classification where additional rear­ ing, study, and special collecting are greatly needed. Formerly the great importance of a knowledge of all of the species in the area considered, and also that of having accurately identified material of all of the species separated for comparison when making identifications was not fully realized. In addition, the necessity of long-time persistent collecting in many different places in Maine has been given too little attention. Many species are not readily secured by the collecting methods we know and use. A large part of the species are strongly cyclic in nature. The dura­ tion of the cycles is a subject for much speculation, but for some species it is a long period of years or possibly unfavorable weather conditions mask some of the peaks in the cycles. Many species are quite local in occurrence and, unless at a peak of abundance or, because of unusual weather conditions, do not stray far from the limited local area. Thus two collectors who stop at the very same spot a few years apart may make a very different catch of species, and weather can make a pro­ nounced change in captures from day to day. I have made a definite effort to reach and collect in unusual and local habitats of all sorts from sea level to the highest mountains, and LEPIDOPTERA IN MAINE 5 to do this at different times during the year. The variety of local habitats in Maine cannot be imagined without personal contact and experience. Some species of Lepidoptera are known from but one to a few of these areas or even a small part of one area, and they have not been found at all in other areas which appear equally favorable. Further, the time of year, the time of day or night, temperature, sunlight, cloudiness or wind movement can be of utmost importance to the collector. Sand areas, open glades, barrens, heaths, mucky areas, marshes, bogs, local plants and micro-habitats have been sought from Kittery and York to Lubec, Van Buren, the mountain tops, and the borders with New Hampshire, Quebec and New Brunswick. I have collected at many places along the Maine-Quebec border and on some of the islands off the coast of Maine. Areas which appear similar may produce very different plants and in­ sects when located on an offshore island, near a farm field, enclosed by large trees, on the flood plain of a lake or river, or on a mountain top. North facing mountains may provide moister habitats with colder and less variable summer temperatures. Hundreds of visits have been made to the various kinds of bogs, and more than 100 to above the tree line. Methods of collecting have been varied according to the information available regarding species to be found in these special habitats. From the beginning of my residence in Maine, I have collected in many different ways, at or with different types of light or light traps, bait or bait traps and I have also supplied equipment to others to collect specimens. A number of private collectors have saved specimens for me over the years. Notable among these are Charles Gay (Bar Harbor), Walter Clayton (Lincoln). Dr. William Procter (Bar Harbor) (to whom the writer supplied identifications, spec­ imens, or both, of a large part of the Lepidoptera recorded in the Mt. Desert list). Paul Grey (Lincoln-Enfield), Viola H. dos Passos (Range- ley), Bruno M. Spies (Farmington, 1956-65), and Leland Haywood (East Vassalboro, 1966-72), who has, in particular, taken many south­ ern migrants. Bait or sugar mixtures have been used at intervals and attention has been paid to attractive flowers. Interesting larvae, when encountered, have been collected and reared.