Spurge Hawkmoth and Website Update

This is a followup to my Sept 2 post from last year. Diane Miller found a bunch of caterpillars at her mother and brothers residences in Platte and Nance counties. She was kind enough to give me a couple. They promptly pupated and I left them in a Folgers coffee container on my workbench in our detached garage. Earlier this month I was looking for a tool and rediscovered them. Both were alive and wriggled when touched. So I rounded up some moist leaf litter and put them in it under a cage. About a week later one adult emerged and I put it in the same Folgers coffee container (I wanted it to feel at home) and into the freezer. Last week I rediscovered it (again) in the freezer and finally got it spread.

Once again these moths (Celerio euphorbiae) were imported to try to contain the spread of leafy spurge in this country (refer back to the Sept 2 2021 post for a more detailed explanation) so they are “curiosities” as an introduced species and are not part of our native moth fauna.

In case you haven’t visited the website https://nebraskalepidoptera.com/ recently major improvements have been made. Through Nebraska game and Parks’ Watchable Wildlife program Jonatan Nikkila and I have overhauled the site. It now features species accounts of all 210 species in the state along with 19 public access sites from across the state where you have a good chance to see many of our native butterfly and moth fauna. It features field photographs with as many species as possible photographed in our state by local enthusiasts.

If you think you may have sighted a new county record or have a butterfly photo you’re especially proud of let us know at nebraskabutterflies@gmail.com. Due to space/financial constraints of the website we probably can’t post every pic but will try to include some on our species account pages. Thanks to all for their interest and patience while we overhauled our website.