Henderson and beyond

Follow-up on "making it out to Travis's house" on 5/20: I got there in the late afternoon. We went for a walk in the huge pastures near his house and searched the wooded areas between the pastures for insects. We hit a tree where we had found six or more S. aloeus grubs last year, but no one was home. We found a few more good stumps but hit a sweet spot with an old hackberry. We found about five pupal P. punctata, two grubs and four adults all in one area of the stump.

This past weekend (5/27/06) I met up with (and met) Dave from Houston. He was passing through town to stay with family and was looking for good collecting sites. He wanted to check out the visitor's center near Butte la Rose. I found seven P. punctata there and he found many moths to take home. He had already spoken to the security guard on his previous trip, who didn't seem to mind him collecting. I suggest checking this spot out again, thanks Dave.
On the way back we hit Henderson and Breaux Bridge, stopping at any place with nice lighting. The first spot we hit yielded one dead, male D. tityus (very upsetting). I also came home with two C. scrutator and Dave found more moths that he would have to tell you about (Dave is interested in coming back for our big get-together in June). He e-mailed me earlier today with a spot in Jenerette that he discovered where he found a D. tityus and S. aloeus, both male. On my lunch break today I stopped at a park in B.B. where I found a male S. aloeus. Basically.... stuff is flying and we need to get out there!

On a side note, the night I got back from Butte la Rose I placed the P. punctata in a container to keep them until I was able to remove the pre-pupal P. punctata grubs from a larger container. The container had my substrate in it and by the next night I collected over 65 eggs from those adults.

On a second note, check this pic out:
http://www.ecofauna.com/img/Dynastes_hercules_003.jpg

Steven