Catocala = kah-TOCK-uh-lah

Although it is my intent to make the information on this site as scientifically accurate as possible with regard to identification, taxonomies, ranges, flight times, etc., the main emphasis will be to reveal the life histories of these interesting moths and to provide insights into the challenges of rearing and observing them.

Website created and maintained by Bill Oehlke. Contact Bill at Pauncho

To show appreciation for this site, click on the flashing butterfly to the left, a link to many worldwide insect sites.

Help me build this site by sending electronic images of adult moths and larvae along with sighting/collecting data.

Kelly Richers has sent me extensive collecting data for California. Click to see map and data.

As of April 4, 2010, this page has been further updated as per research data compiled by Larry Gall and David Hawks.

I would like to continue to refine the listings to county levels so images and data (date, location at least to county level, bait, lights) would be very much appreciated. Please send same to Bill Oehlke. All images that I use on my websites remain the property of respective photographers and images are credited as such.

July 14, 2013:
Larry Gall of Connecticut writes,
"Hi folks, now that the adult Catocala season is in full swing, I'm hoping some or all of you can offer a bit of collecting assistance. Before making that request, I wanted to also let you know (a number of you already know) that I asked Bob Borth and Hugo Kons to join me/Dave this spring as authors on the MONA Fascicle. We are working on an end-game plan, which will incorporate a lot of new information that Hugo and Bob have been generating, with submission of a manuscript in November 2014, aiming for a projected late 2015 publication date.

"Summer 2013 collecting -- this summer I would like to receive
(1) as many specimens of male Catocala neogama as you wish to collect, from anywhere, and
(2) as many batches of eggs from as many female Catocala neogama as you care to put up and babysit for egg laying, from anywhere.
The reason is that two species appear to be going under the name Catocala neogama throughout most of its geographic range, notably east of the Great Plains where we have all largely taken Catocala neogama for granted as a single entity. We'd like to confirm the likelihood of two species from rearings from known females next spring, and also want to redo the data that will be used to generate these species' MONA distribution maps based on male records (the males are easier to separate).

"Also, the same request holds for specimens/eggs from Catocala praeclara and Catocala alabamae from anywhere north of the Gulf Coast, so that we can nail down the respective distributions of these with better precision. Specimens of any sex are fine.

"The specimens sent can be in any state of preparation, pinned or not, although field pinned specimens may be the fastest to work with at this end. I'm happy to provide hints on obtaining eggs, etc., and assist anyone with shipping expenses. As always, I am also happy to determine any/all Catocala you might wish to have determined. Please feel free to forward this email to any/all of your collecting friends, and happy hunting!"

Lawrence F. Gall, Ph.D.
Head, Computer Systems Office
Informatics Manager, Entomology
Executive Editor, Peabody Publications
Lepidoptera Section Editor, Zootaxa

Peabody Museum of Natural History
P.O. Box 208118, Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520-8118 USA
http://www.peabody.yale.edu

email: lawrence.gall@yale.edu
phone: 1-203-432-9892
FAX: 1-203-432-9816

I have begun to create state by state checklists. Those states listed in green now have active thumbnail pictoral checklists. As far as I know there are no Catocala known from Alaska or Hawaii.

If you have corrections, additions, images, information, please send same along.

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia

Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland

Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey

New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina

South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Tim Dyson has sent me outstanding images of live moths from Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Check out the Catocala along Tim's Bait Trail at Tim Dyson: Night Vison Photography.

Visit other Lepidoptera websites designed and maintained by Bill Oehlke by clicking on the BLUE TEXT:

Saturniidae of Prince Edward Island: Livestock for sale

Caterpillars Too!: a membership site featuring images of North American butterfly caterpillars and adult butterflies, too, to help with identification.

ARCTIIDAE: TIGER MOTHS; WOOLLY BEAR CATERPILLARS

SPHINGIDAE OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

BUTTERFLIES OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

THE KIRBY WOLFE SATURNIIDAE COLLECTION

THE THIBAUD DECAENS SATURNIIDAE COLLECTION

THE LEROY SIMON SATURNIIDAE COLLECTION

THE WORLD'S LARGEST SATURNIIDAE SITE

SPHINGIDAE OF THE UNITED STATES

SPHINGIDAE OF THE AMERICAS

Caterpillar Identification Guide

Visit "Systematics of moths in the genus Catocala (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) IV.
Nomenclatorial stabilization of the Nearctic fauna, with a revised synonymic check list";
ZooKeys 39: 37–83 (2010) by Lawrence F. Gall, David C. Hawks

This website has been created and is maintained by Bill Oehlke without government or institutional financial assistance. All expenses, ie., text reference support material, webspace rental from Bizland, computer repairs/replacements, backups systems, software for image adjustments (Adobe Photoshop; L-View), ftp software, anti-virus protection, scanner, etc. are my own.

I very much appreciate all the many images that have been sent to me, or of which I have been granted permission to copy and post from other websites. All images on this site remain the property of respective photographers.

If you would like to contribute to the maintenace of this website by sending a contribution to

Bill Oehlke
Box 476
155 Peardon Road
Montague, Prince Edward Island, C0A1R0
Canada

your donation would be much appreciated and would be used for
1) paying for webspace rental;
2) paying for computer maintenance and software upgrades;
3) purchases of additional text reference material (journals and books) in anticipation of expanding the site to a worldwide Sphingidae site;
4) helping to pay my daughter's tuition (completed spring 2013); with anything left over going to humanitarian aid.

If you are mailing a check from USA, please use $1.25 postage (2015 rate). Donations can also be made through Paypal via the button below.