Pre-publication discount offers

Persons from the entomological community who wish to order the book may receive a discount. The University of California Press is offering a 20% discount for orders received by April 30, 2009. A special code must be included with the order form [09m5991]. The retail price of the book will be $95. Interested persons may visit the book's site [http://go.ucpress.edu/Moths]. It is also expected that BioQuip, Inc. may offer a discount for pre-publication orders.

Book almost there!

Jerry Powell and I received the page proof for our book around November 11th just before my travel to the Entomological of America meetings in Reno, Nevada. During the 5 days in Reno, I spent a few hours each day reading through the proofs of the text and answering queries from the copy-editor. The entire stack of draft pages and plates was on view during the meeting at the California Agriculture Extension display.



On returning to Colorado, I spent a large amount of time each day going through the proofs. Both Jerry and I managed to get our respective portion of the proofs returned to Aptara in York, PA right on their deadline of December 12th. However, proofing and correcting the three indexes (moth, plant, and general) has taken by far the greatest amount of time. These are due to Aptara by January 2. We expect to meet that deadline. After that the corrected pages will be sent electronically, and we'll have 1 week to go through them and get them returned. Then the book will be sent to the printer. We expect to see preliminary copies of the bound book in March, but the expected release date will bee in May.

Richard Holland Butterfly Collection donated to Colorado State University

On the weekend of October 4th & 5th , I drove with Dr. Boris Kondratieff from Fort Collins, Colorado to Albuquerque, New Mexico in order to receive a major portion of the Southwestern Butterfly Collection of Dr. Richard W. Holland. This collection is especially rich in samples from throughout New Mexico and northwestern New Mexico. It is probably the most valuable survey of New Mexican species. The collection will be an important addition to the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity in Colorado State University's Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management.

Visit to Finca Hilde, El Mirador, Veracruz, Mexico

Don Bowman and I recently returned from an 8-day trip to Finca el Hilde, El Mirador, Veracruz, Mexico. This part of a research study being conducted on Mexican butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) with Dr. Manuel Balcazar-Lara of the Universidad de Colima. We survey moths each night at several sites at the Hacienda or the coffee plantation. We were hosted by Jorge Muller and his gracious talented staff. Each night we set up 4-5 ultra-violet or mercury vapor lights and studied the moths that were attracted. We found a stunning diversity of moth species, especially tiger moths (Arctiinae), prominents (Notodontidae), geometers (Geometridae), and others. We roughly estimated 200 species of moths of all families each night at each sheet. On four of the nights we ran ran lights within the coffee plantation. This plantation has been certified as a bird-friendly, organic, shade coffee plantation. We found the moth species at the plantation were as diverse or more diverse as at the Haciendaa itself. Thus, we can assert that the plantation is also "moth friendly." We plan to expand on this notice by preparing a listing of the Arctiinae, Saturniidae, and Sphingidae for publication. We have studied moths in other Mexicaan states such as Nuevo Leon, Sonora, and Tamalipas, but we found this to be the most diverse area. We highly recommend this area to any biologist or naturalists who wish to have a pleasant tropical experience and intrigueing studies.

Western Moths color proofs

Today I received most of the color proofs for the Moths of Western North America as well as the proofs for all of the black and white line art. This all looks really great! Can't wait to see the book!

Washington Weekly interview

Yesterday, September 17, I was interviewed on the Washington Weekly radio program. I was asked several questions about current protection of endangered species, and the about the politics of endanagered species protection. You may find out about the program at www.washingtonweekly.com or download it from I-Tunes. The interviewer did mention several times that I am contributing to a DVD being produced by MasterVision "Butterflies: Common and Endangered." This is a double DVD with one part of common North American Butterflies and the other on all U.S. Endangered and Threatened Species. Jim Ebner and Peter Kreutzer are doing all of the technical editing. It should be a wonderful contribution!

Paul Opler's blog

Finally, in early August, 2009, all of the chores in preparation of our book Moths of Western North America were submitted to the editors at the University of California Press in Berkeley.
The book is now offically in production and is in the process of being copy-edited and put into pages. The book is anticipated to be published in May 2009 at a price of $75. Jerry and I both feel the book will be an overwhelming bargain at this price! More than 2000 species of western moths are discussed and illustrated. There will be 64 color plates, most of which were prepared by Jocelyn Gill in Ottawa, Canada. She is a master at preparing such masterpieces, and several other moth books have benefited from her expertise.