No.5 Sept/Oct 1990 EDITOR o( the LEPIDOPTERJSTS' SOCIETY June Preston 832 Sunset Dr. Lawrence. KS 66044 U.S.A. ZONE COORDINATORS 1. Ken Philip 6. Ed Knudson 10. Dave Winter 2. Jon Shepard 7. Ross Layberry 11. J.e.E. Riotte 3. Bob Langston 8. Les Ferge 12. Eduardo Welling M. 4. Ray Stanford 9. Andy Beck 13. Boyce Drummond 5. Ron A. Royer of a monarch butterfly with a head bearing an uncanny resemblance to John Lane. An aberrant, no doubt, or could ILWAUKEE 1990 this be the long-feared super-subspecies, !2an.au..s. plexlppus J..a.n.a.i (B art.)? . A small group of bright-eyed and broad-minded The population of Milwaukee Increased by more than members arose at 6 a.m. Saturday to appraise the local as members gathered on Thursday, 14 June 1990, for the avifauna, otherwise known as checking out the competition. Annual Meeting of The Lepidopterists' Society. They Has anyone ever calculated how many noctuid and geomelrid from 26 states and the District of Columbia plus from larvae are sacrificed to build one warbler? , Panama and Australia. Many brought their families Saturday morning's session dealt with Lepidoptera them too. The Milwaukee Public Museum was host, and Biology of the Upper Midwest and was run by Mo Nielsen. .• epldoptera collections were open for examination, as Topics included buckmoths of the Great Lakes region, the outstanding public exhibits. controlled burning In relation to the life cycles of prairie At the Executive Council Meeting on Thursday we were skippers, unravelling Erythroecla and.s.tl.rl..a life-histories In to learn of the sudden death, a few weeks before, Ohio, prairie associated or dependent leps in Wisconsin and oyce Karpuleon, wife of our new Treasurer, Fay In the Chicago region, and biological comparisons of Great uleon. Fay, accompanied by his son Marc, was able to Lakes region swallowtails with the same speCies from other the first portions of the meeting, but left early to regions. d to personal matters. Jacqueline Y. Miller presented her Presidential The traditional Thursday evening reception was held Address, "The Age of Discovery: Lepidoptera in the Wesl e Carpenter Tower, a Marquette University facility Indies." Her discussion of the varied island populations and e many of the attendees enjoyed excellent and their relation to and derivation from the continental fauna, slve housing. Several hours were passed in meeting as influenced by geology, geography, and the desecrations 01 and old friends and exchanging Interval histories. man, Indicated that this age of discovery is stili in its early The formal meetings, In the lecture hall of the Instars. m, were opened with a welcome by Museum Director Subjects In the Saturday afternoon session, under the Rosen. Then followed a symposium on Caterpillar aegis of Austin Platt, ranged from butterfly gardening to , with Lincoln Brower presiding. Subjects Included acquired toxicity In Ithomllne butterflies, from the effects defense, energy costs of moving about and feeding of wear on mandibles 01 notodontia larvae to population nt temperatures, color polymorphism, foraging studies of Florida monarchs. The high point of this session ,etc. The surface has barely been scratched In this was the report by the Bagdonas Flying Circus master that of study. ov.er one third of the grizzly bears In the Yellowstone An unusually clear group picture was taken on the ecosystem spend their summers above timberline subsisting 01 the museum during the noon break. Some peach borer primarily on noctuid moths, which they garner from roosting In your writer's shirt pocket attracted numerous aggregations beneath loose talus rocks. To think that the ed Seslids, Al..t2.wJ.a fLa.xl.n..I, to the gathering, much to noble grizzly would be dependent on the humble miller moth I nsternation of those not accustomed to wasp-moths. The Saturday evening social hour was held In the The afternoon session, chaired by Lee Miller, covered shadow of the museum's rain lorest exhibit. Deane Bowers varied subjects as fine microscopic structures, cocoon shared a sack of unscheduled hors d'oeuvres in the form of truction, taxonomic revisions, and the biology of hook­ mapanl worms (dried saturn lid larvae) from South Africa. ' oths. The session ended with Boyce Drummond, They tasted rather like crackers. One could live without . NAL Editor, describing the process of converting one's them. tilic observations Into a publishable paper. It is Following a tasty and satisfying banquet in Ulhleln ght-Iorward, non-mysterious: Y.2.U. can do it. Hall, President Miller presented the Karl Jordan Medal to Friday evening opened with a flawless (fly-less) Ebbe S. Nielsen, of the Australian National Insect Collection on the impeccably-kept campus of Marquette. It was in Canberra. Dr. Nielsen made a potentially deadly subject, _''''''''''~lnt diversion to see cottontails hopping about the "Towards a Phylogeny for the Lepidoptera," lively, rd (In most cities It would have been rats). Atthe enlightening, and even entertaining! He is to be slide show later, Art Shapiro shared with us congratulated both for his work and for his presentation. lions on botany and pseudoanthropologylrom the Charlie Covell m-c'd the 20th annual door prize lip of South America. Francisco Delgado, of the drawing with his usual finesse. Suspense ran high to see I of Panama, depicted In detail some of the who would make off with the many beautiful.and valuable perils facing his country. Charlie Covell reviewed offerings. Art Shapiro went home in a butterfly T-shirt, his history of previous meetings going back several first win in 20 years, and your secretary garnered a cyanide s: some of our austere members were kids, once I And jar (do you think they are trying to tell me something?). Our but not last was a shot from California (where else?) unbounded thanks go to all the generous donors of the prizes. 65 The final brief scientific session, chaired by John Prchal will coordinate the 1-4 August 1991 meeting In Rollins on Sunday morning, dealt with biogeography of Tucson to be co-hosted by Sonoran Arthropod Studies, Inc., sphinglds, satyrldae, neotropical theclines, and southern Center of Insect Science and the Department of Entomology Andean pierids. of the University of Arizona. The date was chosen to The annual business meeting wound up the formal coincide with the new moon and the start of the rainy .activities for the year. Some members departed directly for season, the time 01 greatest moth emergence In the area . their homes, while others detoured to inspect butterfly The 1992 meeting will be held 25-28 June in East gardens In the area, and to go north to the University of Lansing, Michigan under the direction of Fred Stehr and Mo Wisconsin field station in Saukville for an overnight stay. Nielsen, and co-hosted by the Department of Entomology, Chief attraction there was the Cedarburg bog ecosystem: Michigan State University, and the Michigan Entomological pitcher plants harbored larvae of the pitcher plant moth, and Society. buckmoth larvae were feeding on willow and bogbean. In 1993, on 8-11 July, Paul Opler will manage the Overnight moth collecting was very productive. meeting iii Fort Collins, Colorado, with Dr. Tom Holzer, Credit for the outstanding success of the meeting Chairman of the Colorado State University Entomology goes to coordinators Sue Borkin and Allen Young, along with Department as co-host. their numerous ancillaries, who had labored for two years to NEWS Editor June Preston called for contributions of create this event. And particular thanks go to Ray Sullivan, more articles and black/white photographs for the NEWS, on Sue's father, who managed the projector (and countless collecting, rearing, general field observations, etc. other details) in a nearly flawless manner, enabling the JOURNAL Editor Boyce Drummond reported that the scientific sessions to preceed more smoothly than any first JOURNAL Issue to contain color had been mailed 5 June, within memory. and that the Society's subsidy has been raised to 50% of the In summary, the broad range of titles presented during $800 page cost (details are available from the Editor). He the meeting offered Items of Interest to all facets of our also needs more line drawings for JOURNAL covers, and b/w Society, from field-roaming amateur to cloistered or color photographs for the "Feature Photographs" section. taxonomist. This, together with the opportunltlell to MEMOIRS Editor William Miller reported that a socialize and renew acquaintances, and to become' familiar manuscript on worldwide Saturnlid larval foodplants has with territory which may be new to us, makes the trip to the been provisionally accepted. Annual Meeting an extremely rewarding experience. We look The Committee on Endowments and Awards, chaired by forward to seeing you In Tucson, Arizona, next August. Ben Ziegler, has produced a revised policy on guidelines for Dave Winter awards, and has approved the criteria for the Harry K. Clench award. These both will be reported In the NEWS. Members with suggestions re awards should contact the chairman. Charlie Covell's Techniques Manual will be designed in two parts: I. Beginning Techniques. II. Finer Techniques. Authors for some sections have already been defined. Generation time Is expected to be three years. ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING MINUTES 1990 A Society T-shirt, blue or yellow with the Society President Jackie Miller called the Annual Business Meeting of The Lepidopterists' Society to order at 10:42 logo in black, will be ushered forth by Charlie before the a.m., 17 June 1990, In the lecture hall of the Milwaukee year's end. Public Museum. Approximately 50 members were present. A new Committee on Public Relations, co-chaired by, She first reported on the activities of the Back Issues Sue Borkin and Jackie Miller, will explore the role of the' Society In supplying reliable Information on lepldoptera to Committee, that Floyd & June Preston had done a massive the general public and to conservation organizations.