This past week I joined my friend Steve at his rural property in Ste. Genevieve County for some blacklighting and nocturnal caterpillar hunting. The cat hunting was amazing—probably the single best cat session I have ever had, with about 60 individuals identified of 30 unique species. That number does not include the dozens of early instars that I was unable to identify with certainty. Steve’s property has a lot going for it when it comes to attracting Lepidoptera. In addition to his mostly hickory and oak wood lot, he also has old hay fields that he is letting go more natural, with a number of native woody successions like honey locust and dogwoods springing up. Additionally, he has planted a nice diversity of native woodies on his property. This amounts to a lot of woody “edges” consisting of young and well establishing trees and bushes that lepidopteran females are on the lookout for. I’ll be sharing some of the caterpillars in the near future. Once in awhile we would take a break from hunting to check the sheet that I installed with a mercury vapor and UV bulbs. The diversity of adult moths attracted was quite nice as well. Here are the photos of some that I bothered to photograph.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 
That is quite a haul, Bill. Very impressive diversity.
Beautiful! Love this assortment, Bill.
Thank you, Dave!