Number 3 NEWS 15 May, 1972 of the LEPIDOPTERISTS' SOCIETY Editorial Committee of the NEWS. ..•. , "" r" - ,.";"9;:_~>''>') EDITOR: Dr. Charles V. Covell, Jr., Dept. of BloIQgy;, Univ:.of Louisville, Louisville, Ky., USA, 40208 ASSOC. EDITOR: Dr. Paul A. Opler, Div. of Entomology, 201 Wellman Hall, Univ. of California, Berkeley, California, USA, 94720 J. Donald Eff G. Hesselbarth F. W. Preston Thomas C. Emmel Robert L. Langston G. W. Rawson H. A. Freeman Lloyd M. Martin Mike Van Buskirk L. Paul Grey F. Bryant Mather E. C. Welling M. R. S. Wilkinson John Heath K. W. Philip ....\': Moth Bites Man After a quarter century of more or less consistently having had things go my way with moths, the tables were turned momentarily last summer. I was collecting with my daughter at a 15-watt blacklight in the Shenandoah National Forest northwest of Luray, Virginia, in late July. Moths were not overly abundant .(about 120 species taken in two nights), and although other insects, especially caddis flies were present in annoying numbers, conditions were nothing like those which sometimes obtain in tropical areas when one's face is continually bombarded with insects when near the light. However, about 11 :30 p.m., while I was standing a few feet from the blacklight, a moth sud­ denly flew directly into my ear. When I instinctively reached up to it, the brute quickly wriggled downward as far as possible, where it nested against the eardrum and commenced to thrash and kick. After a short time I noticed that this was probably going to be annoying - it sounded roughly like what I imagine it would to have one's head' inside a snare drum - but assorted measures (holding flashlight, blacklight to ear, banging op­ posite ear, shouting threats, etc.) failed to persuade the busy immigrant to turn around and evacuate. Having lost interest in further collecting, I retreated to the sleeping bag, but various positions of recline did not affect the moth's behavior. Periods of rapid vibration and scratching were interspersed with those of quiescence, during which the intruder and the collector rested. Finally, with the likelihood of survival with even lepidopterists' level of sanity such a night seeming slight, I held an open cyanide bottle over my ear, which resulted in an immediate flurry of activity (on the part of the moth), an array of increasingly higher pitched buzzing and whining, and at last quiet. The following day there was no particular discomfort, although the beseiged stowaway continued to sporadically quiver weakly until noon or so. Thus we continued the trip, and I did some diurnal collecting before breaking camp and driving the 100 miles to our home base. Late that afternoon I went to the emer­ gency clinic at the Alexandria Hospital; the receiving nurse showed no emotion in dutifully entering 'moth in ear' on the registration form, but her estimate of 30-40 minutes wait was grossly in error. No sooner had I taken a seat than my name was called, and a physician immediately came to my aid in preference over the occupants of crowded rooms full of the usual aggregation of maimed Sunday motorcyclists and the like: 'Are you the one with the moth in ear? (definite inflection of incredulity)..."Yeh, laugh it off"...ILet's have a 100k... My God, it is a moth"..."Hey Joe, take a look at this"..."Great Scott, its got legs"..."Hey Mabel, look at this"..."0h, iick"...and so on. If you think they were surprised then though, you Should have seen the looks, when after extraction, to my astonishment I perceived the beast to be not a tortricid or other respectable micro, and announced IIA noctuid! Outtasite." The specimen, rescued from the brink of disposal but in only fair condition, was later identified as Polygrammate hebraeicum (Hbn.) by E. L. Todd, ARS, U. S. National Museum, who looked like he really didn't believe it either. After all the entertainment the unappreciative hospital billed me $20 for professional services, a fee no noctuid has ever been worth. - Jerry A. Powell, University of California, Berkeley. THE LEPIDOPTERISTS' SOCIETY STATEMENT OF CONDITION 31 December 1971 ASSETS LIABILITIES Cash: Dues & SUbscriptions Deferred . $ 317.00 Checking Account ..... $10,274.15 Life Members (33 @ $150.00) . 4,950.00 Savings Account (24 Nov.) . 4,205.73 Publications Fund 94.70 Back Issues Stock. ....... 1.00 Illustration Fund. 72.00 Profit & Loss .. 9,047.18 $14,480.88 $14,480.8a STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS INCOME EXPENSES Dues ... .. $ 9,880.45 JOURNAL Publication . .. $ 7,303.45 Regular (7,660.45) Volume 25: 1-4 Sust. ( 700.00) Stud. ( 920.00) Supplements. .. 1,745.68 Life ( 600.00) Volume 25: 1-3 Subscriptions 1,394.00 NEWS Publication. 2,166.16 Sales . 793.89 Reprints . 59.28 Back Issues (505.50) (1970 Membership List) Memoirs (288.39) Unscheduled Income 685.68 Administrative Costs .... 596.88 Extra page charges Stationery (227.90) Color plate Postage (220.68) Gummed lists Annual Meeting (148.30) Contributions . 171.70 Transferred to savings .... 600.00 Illustr. fund (94.70) Pub. fund (72.00) Postage fund ( 5.00) $12,925.72 $12,471.45 Income over expenses. ..... .. $ 454.27 EVALUATION. There are no known unpaid bills for 1971. Our costs continue to soar. Postage now is one of our major expenses and will continue to increase in the future. The new printing contract negotiated for the JOURNAL for the next three years will increase production costs of this item. As anticipated, our new dues structure placed operations for 1971 in the plus column, however marginal it is. An estimated budget for 1972 is: JOURNAL $10,000; NEWS $2,500; Administrative expenses (including postage) $700.00. Respectfully submitted, S. S. Nicolay Treasurer, 1971 -2- ESPECIALLY FOR FI ELD COLLECTORS This section is edited by Dr. Paul A. Opler. Articles are solicited from members, and are to be sent to him on subjects of interest to the field lepidopterist. His temporary address is: Hacienda la Pacifica, Canas, Guana­ caste, COSTA RICA, C. A. ONE-DAY AND ONE-WEEK LISTS IN NEW YORK With collecting almost as automobile-dependent as everything else nowadays, it is much easier to collect many species in one day than it used to be. A list of 30 - 40 species is easily obtained in midsummer in any ecologically diverse part of the North­ east, given an early start and a set of wheels. Getting that many butterflies in a small area on foot is something else again, and indicates an unusually rich local fauna. My own record of this sort is 43 species in 2 miles of Ellis Hollow, Tompkins County, New York, July 6, 1970. Ellis Hollow is the valley of upper Cascadilla Creek. The valley floor is in pasture or alfalfa, wh ile the hills are largely forested with beech, maple, and hemlock and some areas of birch, aspen, and other successional vegetation. The list follows: Danaus plexippus, Lethe eurydice, Cercyonis ~ nephele, Euptychia cymela, Speyeria aphrodite, §. cybele, Boloria toddii, Euphydryas phaeton, Phyciodes tharos, Polygonia progne, f. interrogationis, Nymphalis antiopa, ~. milberti, Vanessa atalanta, Cynthia virginiensis, Limenitis archippus, Satyrium calanus fa lacer, ~. caryaevorus, ~ liparops, Harken­ c1enus titus, Celastrina argiolus, Everes comyntas, Lycaena phlaeas americanna, 1. thoe, Papilio glaucus, Colias philodice,,£:. eurytheme, Pieris rapae, Thorybes bathyllus, L pylades, Erynnis martialis, Pyrgus communis, Anycyloxipha numitor, Thy­ melicus lineola, Hesperia sassacus, Poanes hobomok, Polites mystic, f. origenes, ~ themistocles, .p. coras, ~. verna, Wallen­ grenia otho egeremet, and Euphyes vestris metacomet. In addition, 4 more species were seen in the same area the same week: Satyrium acadica, Papilio polyxenes asterius, Epargyreus c1arus, and Euphyes dion. What about a one-week list for a single county? My record is 59 species in Richmond County, New York, the week of July 12, 1971. Of these, 37 were taken in one day. Richmond County (Staten Island) has an area of about 70 square miles, of which about 1/3 is fully urbanized, and a relief of 300-odd feet. The climax vegetation is oak forest; there are extensive areas of waste ground, tidal marsh, and scrub oak-pine barrens habitats. The list: Q. plexippus, !:: eurydice, f: pegala alope, E.: cymela, ~. aphrodite, .§.. cybele, ~. toddii, ~. phaeton, f. tharos, .p. interrogationis, i!. antiopa, Y.... atalanta, Cynthia vir­ giniensis, Junonia coenia, L. archippus, Limenitis astyanax, Asterocampa celtis, Libytheana bachmannii, Strymon melinus, Satyrium acadica, .§.. edwardsii,.§.. falacer, .§.. caryaevorus, §.. liparops, .!::!. titus, f. argiolus, ~. comyntas, b: phlaeas ameri­ cana, 1, thoe, f. glaucus, 1'. troilus, E. polyxenes asterius, ~ philodice, f. philodice, ~. eurytheme, Eurema nicippe, ~ rapae, .§.. c1arus, Achalarus Iyciades, I. pylades, Erynnis martialis, E. horatius, Pholisora catullus, ~. numitor, I. lineola, Hesperia attalus, Poanes hobomok, f. massasoit, f. viator, Polites mystic, ~. origenes, p. themistocles, E.. coras, ~. verna, '!!.. otho egeremet, Euphyes bimacula, E.. dion, E. vestris metacomet, Atrytone arogos, A. delaware. Additional species known to be on the wing in Richmond County that week include Lethe appalachia, 1.. anthedon, Polygonia comma, Pieris protodice, and Euphyes conspicua. - Arthur M. Shapiro, Department ofZoology University of California; Davis, California 95616 NEWS AND NOTES: Don Eff has informed us of the death of Arthur Moeck of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a Charter Member of the Society and good friend of many collectors **** ** Bryant Mather sent a clipping informing us of the death in Windsor, Nova Scotia, of Dr. Edna Mosher, best known for her clas­ sification of Lepidoptera on the basis of pupal characters. She was 93. * ***** Word has reached us of the passing of two eminent lepidopterists among our Hungarian members: doctors L. Kovacs and Julius F. Lengyel. ****** Foreign members wishing to have the NEWS sent to them via air mail are offered this service for an additional $4 per year pay­ able in advance to the Treasurer.