Please visit our project at: https://www.experiment.com/BuckMoth

Share it on social media!!!!! -- become a backer -- $10.00 from you will help us realize our research goals!

Hello and welcome to Day 2 of our crowd funding project. We have had such an amazing kick off day - 70 Page views and 12% of our target raised! Better than we had hoped, by far. Thank you to everyone who is helping. Please share this post on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ - help spread the word. Likes and shares get the word out!

We will be posting a new lab note tomorrow about the amazing caterpillars from Powderhorn ranch that we are rearing.

https://experiment.com/buckmoth

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Dear Friends:

If you are reading this email it is because you have shown an interest in the East Texas Natural History Collection and our ongoing efforts to build partnerships between scientific professionals, citizen scientists, land owners/resource mangers and the amazing wildlife of the great state of Texas. Since its inception in 2012 the East Texas Natural History Collection has worked to build this critical network.

Today we open a new chapter in our development -- crowd funded research - and we invite you to help spread the word - we need crowds of like minded people to visit our project and become backers.

The project is located here: https://www.experiment.com/BuckMoth

About the studies:

We have been studying a population of magnificent black and white Buck Moths in Calhoun County since 2003 when they were first brought to our attention by 2 local naturalists - Brush Freeman and Petra Hockey. In October of 2014, we were thrilled to learn that The Powderhorn Ranch - a 17,351 acre tract of land in Calhoun County, Texas was acquired by The Nature Conservancy and Texas Parks and Wildlife. Read more here. This property is an amazing and unique coastal oak habitat with grassy prairies, salt marshes and thousands of acres of low oak mottes. The two primary oaks in this habitat are the larval food plant for the Buck Moth and this is where our studies have been focused since 2005.

The Nature Conservancy has recently granted us access to this property to continue our studies and we need your help to ensure that we have the necessary resources to complete what we have started. Please visit our project and consider becoming a backer. If you support this science please share it on Facebook, iNaturalist, LinkedIn, Twitter and any other social media site. We would love to have your endorsement. We have 30 days from today to complete our fundraising and the key to our success is exposure - .

We thank you so much for your time and look forward to your feedback!

Dr. Will Godwin FICEZS
Mr. Robert Nuelle, Jr. AICEZS
Mr. Robert Nuelle, III

Today we are launching our Project at Experiment.com

Visit the Project: http://www.experiment.com/BuckMoth

We have been studying a population of magnificent black and white Buck Moths in Calhoun County since 2003 when they were first brought to our attention by 2 local naturalists - Brush Freeman and Petra Hockey. In October of 2014, we were thrilled to learn that The Powderhorn Ranch - a 17,351 acre tract of land in Calhoun County, Texas was acquired by The Nature Conservancy and Texas Parks and Wildlife. This property is an amazing and unique coastal oak habitat with grassy prairies, salt marshes and thousands of acres of low oak mottes.

The Nature Conservancy has recently granted us access to this property to continue our studies but we need your help to ensure that we have the necessary resources to complete what we have started.

How you can help:

1) Please visit our project and consider becoming a backer.
2) If you support this science please share it on Facebook, iNaturalist,
LinkedIn, Twitter and any other social media site.
3) We would love to have your endorsement.

We have 30 days from today to complete our fundraising and the key to our success is exposure so please spread the word.

We thank you so much for your time and look forward to your feedback!

Dr. Will Godwin, Robert J. Nuelle, Jr. , Robert Nuelle, III

I am following up on our visits to the Powderhorn Ranch Conservation Area with the request to continue the research on Hemileuca peigleri in Calhoun County. The initial trips have helped us to identify which Oak was being used by the female moths for oviposition. This oak is now identified as Quercus minima – Jason Singhurst (TPWD).

We have had two separate trips to collect ova rings and now we are looking to:
1) gather caterpillars to search for larval parasitoids
2) review the impact of the caterpillars on the property (especially the Oak ecosystems)
3) review the recently burned areas for evidence of how fires affect the ova rings.

The ova rings collected on out last visit hatched 2 days after returning so it is our belief that the larva are now present on the property, possibly in large numbers. We also intend to continue the broad scale nature data logging for our iNaturalist project.

We are proposing to make this trip on Saturday April 11, 2015 – with a start time at about 8:00 AM. The participants will be instructed by me to meet at the main gate.

Proposed Expedition detail:
During this field trip we will be looking into several things. The first and most important is to observe the caterpillars in their natural habitat, extensive photo documentation will be taken and we will generally be interested in observing their feeding behavior, whether or not they are gregarious, and the various stages of growth. We are extremely interested in collecting individuals that show signs of having been parasitized. We will be watching for individuals that are noticeably lagging behind the other caterpillars in the vicinity in growth stage (instar), individuals that appear to be sickly, individuals who are showing clear signs of parasitoid activity – i.e. Parasitoid cocoons attached to the larvae, or any other noticeable indications that the Caterpillar has been parasitized. These individuals will be collected and reared to determine the nature of the parasitoids of Hemileuca peigleri in Calhoun County. Dr. Peigler has published the definitive work on the parasitoids of North American Saturniidae and his presence on this trip will enable us to have a good shot at determining what unique parasitoids may exist in Calhoun County.This of course is a wonderful paper they can be written.

It is also my intention to photograph extensively the small Oak trees on the property and to document the impact of caterpillars have on the Oaks. We are also interested in discovering what other caterpillars are feeding on the Oak trees. Dr. Peigler is supporting Dr. David L. Wagner on his latest caterpillar book and we are hoping to secure some other interesting caterpillars for him, such as Norape virgo, et al.

We believe that our presence on the property will have a minor impact and of course we will gladly credit you and The Nature Conservancy for your generosity in the officially published papers related to this moth. If you should require a release of liability for this research would be happy to sign. Likewise if you or anyone in your organization happens to enjoy natural history and field trips of this nature of course you would be welcome to join us during our trip.

Confirmed Participants:
East Texas Natural History Collection:
Robert J. Nuelle, Jr. AICEZS– Research Associate ETNHC
Robert J. Nuelle, III – Research Associate ETNHC

University of the Incarnate Word – San Antonio Texas
Dr. Richard Peigler – Professor - University of the Incarnate Word

In conclusion, we sincerely appreciate your time to consider this request and stand ready to answer any questions that you may have.

March 2, 2015

Research Plan:

I am following up on our initial visit to the Powderhorn Ranch Conservation Area with the request to continue the research on Hemileuca peigleri in Calhoun County. The initial trip helped us to identify which Oak was being used by the female moths for oviposition. It is our intention to continue this research and now to look into the natural history of the larval form of this moth now that the ova have hatched and the caterpillars are present in the environment.

Our initial trip raised many questions about the Powderhorn Ranch Conservation Area, some of which we answered others will require additional studies. In particular there are several ancillary opportunities during this follow-up visit.

We are proposing to make this trip on Saturday, March 14, 2015 – with a start time at about 10:00 AM. The participants will be instructed by me to meet at the main gate.

Proposed Expedition detail:

During this field trip we will be looking into several things. The first and most important is to observe the caterpillars in their natural habitat, extensive photo documentation will be taken and we will generally be interested in observing their feeding behavior, whether or not they are gregarious, and the various stages of growth. We are extremely interested in collecting individuals that show signs of having been parasitized. We will be watching for individuals that are noticeably lagging behind the other caterpillars in the vicinity in growth stage (instar), individuals that appear to be sickly, individuals who are showing clear signs of parasitoid activity – i.e. Parasitoid cocoons attached to the larvae, or any other noticeable indications that the Caterpillar has been parasitized. These individuals will be collected and reared to determine the nature of the parasitoids of Hemileuca peigleri in Calhoun County. Dr. Peigler has published a definitive work on the parasitoids of North American Saturnidae and his presence on this trip will enable us to have a good shot at determining what unique parasitoids may existing Calhoun County. This of course is a wonderful paper they can be written, and it is my hope that Dr. Peigler will co-author of the paper with us.

It is also my intention to photograph extensively the small Oak trees on the property and to document the impact of caterpillars have on the Oaks. We are still awaiting definitive identification of the Oak species and we may take if possible, additional samples of the Oaks particularly those on which we can locate remnant ova rings and acorns or catkins so as to assist us in pinning down the Oak identifications.

As we had discussed, we have started a Powderhorn Ranch Conservation Area project on iNaturalist. During this trip one of our observers will be tasked with photographing and data logging other species of wildlife (both flora and fauna) to add to that project.

I would also like to take some soil samples of both dominant land types that we observed on our last trip. The lower lying, moisture soils would seem to discourage the growth of the Oak seem particularly interesting and soil samples may assist us in understanding how this environment impacts the growth of the Oak species. Overall, this piece of land represents a unique opportunity and we believe should be studied extensively because it offers some wonderful habitat but should be documented.

We believe that our presence on the property will have a minor impact and of course we will gladly credit you and The Nature Conservancy for your generosity in the officially published papers related to this moth. If you should require a release of liability for this research would be happy to sign. Likewise if you or anyone in your organization happens to enjoy natural history and field trips of this nature of course you would be welcome to join us during our trip.

Confirmed Participants:

East Texas Natural History Collection:
Robert J. Nuelle, Jr. AICEZS– Research Associate ETNHC
Robert J. Nuelle, III – Research Associate ETNHC
Elizabeth M. Barraza – iNaturalist data logger for the ETNHC

University of the Incarnate Word – San Antonio Texas
Dr. Richard Peigler – Professor

Possible Participants:

East Texas Natural History Collection:
Dr. Will Godwin – Curator ETNHC

Texas Parks and Wildlife
Dr. Ben Hutchins - Invertebrate Biologist - Texas Parks and Wildlife

In conclusion, we sincerely appreciate your time to consider this request and stand ready to answer any questions that you may have. I can be reached by replying to this email, at bob.nuelle.jr@gmail.com .

Sincerely,
Robert J. Nuelle, Jr.