Liang Insects - 2017–2021: Ithaca, New York

What Happened to Liang Insects?

7/26/2020

To our regular (and new) visitors, you may have noticed that it's been a while since we last posted and it's been a bit patchy these last few years. We apologize for that and thought we'd owe you an explanation.

When we first publicized Liang Insects on June 12, 2016 in our hometown of Albany, we were just sixteen-year olds goofing around. Since we were already taking photographs of our insects on a regular basis, we thought it would be awesome to create a web compilation of them and share our unique experiences as insect hobbyists. There wasn't a whole lot to start with, but our work on the site really took off in our last semester of high school while we experiencing serious senioritis. Still, we never really expected many people to view it, so we kept the main purpose of the site for organizing and recording our work, allowing us to reference past observations should we ever need to. Most of the posts were us casually jotting down random details for our own convenience. Perhaps, in retrospect, much of this may not have been relevant to the average viewer and sometimes (especially in our earlier posts), observations/thoughts were not the most scientific or downright silly and erroneous. Although we've received only praise for our work, I suppose that as high schoolers, we weren't fully aware of the consequences and responsibility of creating a personal website.

After we headed off to college in August 2017, we became extremely busy with coursework and student research that we began to update the site less frequently. We also came to recognize in hindsight that most of the work we've produced was quite amateurish and the thought of overhauling the site, let alone updating it, was overwhelming and ended up being demotivating. To date, there remain hundreds of, if not a thousand, posts that could have been written but never were, even though we have been keeping up with the photos and notes in our own personal files.

Nonetheless, it seems that Liang Insects has been garnering some decent recognition around the web in recent years, showing up in a variety of image searches. Because we are still just as passionate about insects as we were four years ago, perhaps we will find the time to catch up with the site in the near future. We've matured and learned a heck of lot since then, and it does bother us that this is the main real-life piece of work we have to show for ourselves and it has become so out of date.

Note: If you're reading this and thinking this sounds very similar to the "About" page, it's because we've just updated it (as of 7/29/20) based on this post in order to reflect the recent circumstances.

Cheers,
Brian and Alan

Papilio glaucus (Iowa) Rearing Notes (August 7, 2019–August 10, 2019)

8/10/2019

Rearing notes for eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Stock originated as F0 ("wild") eggs from Iowa, May (currently in second generation) and July 2019.

August 10

The second the last ash larva pupated, weighing in at 1.7 grams. This is the largest pupa so far and likely for the remainder of this brood. In the end, ash seemed to be the best, most consistent host plant whereas cherry was the worst.
The new lot of ash larvae are molting to fifth instar.

August 9

One more pupated, from cherry, weighing at 1.1 grams, the smallest individual thus far.
The new ash larvae are still on a fantastic trajectory. I suppose this is what it's like for the colony to be disease-free. Most likely, the previous lot of second generation larvae had disease passed down from their parents, were possible even inbred, and never had much of a chance to begin with.

August 8

Two more pupated, from ash, weighing in at 1.2 and 1.6 grams.
The pictures might have gotten a bit mixed up here, but the larvae in the pictures are third instars.

August 7

Two more pupated, from ash, weighing in at 1.1 and 1.4 grams.
One of the larva on cherry became a prepupa, only the third so far, and is fairly small. We are having second thoughts on using cherry as these results have been subpar.
Some of the new ash larvae have molted to fourth instar. They were transferred in groups of three to plastic boxes.

Brian Liang
Brian Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog, insects articles, and site design.

Papilio glaucus (Iowa) Rearing Notes (July 31, 2019–August 6, 2019)

8/6/2019

Rearing notes for eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Stock originated as F0 ("wild") eggs from Iowa, May (currently in second generation) and July 2019.

August 6

One more pupated from ash, weighing in at 1.1 grams.
The larvae on cherry are still growing very slowly, A few larvae on ash are also still very behind and very small. At this rate, they may be on the path to having six instars. It is odd how, under the same rearing conditions, larvae can have such varying performance, but when disease is involved we shoudn't be surprised.
Some of the new ash larvae are now molting the fourth instar. The growth rate with these larvae is objectively faster than the larvae we got from hand-pairing and they seem healthier. Mortality has been relatively low. Petri dish method is working well.

August 5

Four more pupated. The two reared on cherry weighed 1.3 and 1.6 grams. The one reared on weighed 1.6 grams. The one reared on tuliptree weighed 1.1 grams.
It's become apparent that the new ash larvae are on a far better trajectory than the latest rearing with the second generation larvae.

August 4

Some of the new ash larvae are now third instar.

August 3

Eight more pupated, but only four were weighed: 1.3, 1.3, 1.5, and 1.5 grams.
The last of the larvae on tuliptree became a prepupa.
The largest larva on ash is now 3.3 grams.
Two of the larva on cherry became prepupae. The rest of the original lot of larvae are making slow progress, slower than expected. Probably diseased. Two of the younger cherry larvae are already molting to fifth instar.
The new larvae on ash are now molting to third instar.

August 2

Two more pupated, weighing 1.3 and 1.4 grams.
The largest larva on ash is now 3.2 gram individual.
A few of the cherry larvae, one pictured, are getting close to the end as well.

August 1

Another prepupa pupated, weighing in at 1.5 grams, likely female.
Two more larvae each on tuliptree and ash became prepupae.
The new ash larvae, pictured, are growing more syncronolously than we'd expected in comparison to the disaster that was last rearing. That's good.

July 31

The second prepupa mismolted. Sometimes, this is the result of disease but hopefully not.
One larva each on tuliptree and ash became prepupae.
Several of the lagging tuliptree and cherry individuals (fourth instars and newly molted fifth instars) appeared to be diseased. There was very little feeding and some had traces of red fluid exiting the anus.
The largest larva on ash is now a 3.0 gram individual. We picked white ash (Fraxinus americana) today for the new and old ash larvae. They should switch readily between it and the green ash.
The largest larva on cherry is now 2.8 grams.

Brian Liang
Brian Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog, insects articles, and site design.

Papilio glaucus (Iowa) Rearing Notes (July 27, 2019–July 30, 2019)

7/30/2019

Rearing notes for eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Stock originated as F0 ("wild") eggs from Iowa, May 2019; currently in second generation.

July 30

The first larva from tuliptree pupated, weighing in at 1.3 grams. Not bad for a male. The largest larva on tuliptree is now a 3.0 gram individual. Unfortunately, some of the younger fifth instars, fourth instars, and third instar really do not look to be doing well. They ate very little and have noticeable brown patches covering their skinny bodies. These patches have got to be the result of disease. We tossed most of these larvae. They should not be so far behind in development as it is. This leaves us with only about a dozen larvae that are still on a positive trajectory. So far, the disease has yet to become a crisis, but overall the mortality this rearing has been quite high.
One of the larva on ash became a prepupa, surpassing most of the larvae on tuliptree in development. The largest larva on ash so far is 2.8 grams. Overall, these ash larvae still appear to be the healthiest.
A couple more of the original lot of larvae on chokecherry molted to fifth instar. The oldest fifths look quite healthy. The third instars do not. We disposed of these as well. The mortality on the chokecherry has probably been the highest thus far and although it is hard to tell due to the fact that the larvae on chokecherry hatched last, larvae growth rate may be slightly slower than that of ash under the same rearing conditions. The younger chokecherry larvae in petri dishes seem to be doing better; one has already molted to fourth instar and they eat a lot.
The new set of larvae on ash are performing very well. The oldest ones are already molting to second instar. The initial mortality was low; only a few died the day after hatching. No more eggs hatched today, leaving the hatch rate at about seventy out of almost ninety.

July 29

Another larva on tuliptree became a prepupa.
Twenty-eight more eggs hatched. We ran out of large petri dishes, so we were forced to use small ones. The way ash grows is unfortunate.

July 28

The largest of the larvae on tuliptree is now 2.6 grams. One of the larvae became a prepupa. One of the third instars on tuliptree was dead and probably diseased. There are currently still three other third instars that are also likely unhealthy; they should not have fallen so behind.
Thirty more of the new eggs hatched. These and the hatchlings from yesterday were split into three large petri dishes. We want to avoid using excessively large (larvae will not be able to find their way back if they crawl off the host plant), closed container plastic boxes. However, ash leaves are very difficult to put in water tubes in small petri dishes.

July 27

The largest of the larvae on tuliptree is now 2.3 grams. We separated the larvae into plastic boxes because it was becoming too difficult to maintain cuttings in a single popup cage now that the larvae eat so much. We also do not want older larvae to purge in the cage and create an unsanitary environment for the rest of the larvae.
Sixteen of the new eggs hatched. We transferred them to an ash cutting in a plastic box. Ash seems to be holding up the best this late in the season and, of the three host plants tested, we have been most impressed by it. The larvae grew the most synchronized on ash and mortality was low once larvae reached a certain size. Ash cuttings produce the lease condensation of the three hosts in a closed container, which is extremely desirable if we must rear larvae this way.

Brian Liang
Brian Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog, insects articles, and site design.

Papilio glaucus (Iowa) Rearing Notes (July 21, 2019–July 26, 2019)

7/26/2019

Rearing notes for eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Stock originated as F0 ("wild") eggs from Iowa, May 2019; currently in second generation.

July 26

The largest larvae on tuliptree are 2.1 grams. They may be getting close. We suspect that larvae produced this generation will be smaller due to declining host plant quality late in the season. Also, communal rearing in a pop up cage seemed less effective and cuttings wilted quicker; the main intended benefit was ventilation.
Two of the larvae on chokcherry are now fifth instars. In terms of growth rate, the three host plants seem quite close. The growth rate on the tuliptree was the least consistent, but that may have had to do with the rearing method rather than host quality.

July 25

A few of the larvae on tuliptree have gotten quite large now. We added some sugar and bleach to the water, keeping the tuliptree cuttings to see if this will improve cutting longevity since these dry in less than a day in the pop up cage.
About half of the larvae on ash are now fifth instar.
Most of the original larvae on chokecherry are fourth instar.

July 24

More larvae on tuliptree are making their way to fifth instar. About half of the lot of close to thirty are fifth instars, but some of them are still third instars. None have died since moving the larvae to the popup, so the hope is that they are healthy.
The larvae on ash continue to grow in sync. The older half, about a dozen, are developing at almost the exact same rate, molting to fifth instar.
The first instar larvae on chokecherry in a petri dish were dead. These were the last of the lagging larvae retrieved from when the larvae were being rearing on propped up cuttings in a pop up cage. Fortunately, no larger larvae have died. The fatalities have mostly restricted to the young larvae on chokecherry.
Most of the eggs that were laid near the end of the last female’s life appear to be unviable. Perhaps fertile, but have a very low hatch rate nonetheless. A few that hatched are noticeably much smaller than normal and yellowish instead of black. These tend to die the next day.
We received another lot of about eighty eggs to help reinvigorate the colony and help us reach our research goals.

July 23

The fifth instars on tuliptree are making some progress. Large branches are now being used, inserted into yogurt containers with holes cut into the lid. This works better than the flasks we were using previously, which did not hold enough water to support the cuttings for an entire day and had the risk of larvae crawling into the water and drowning.
A few of the larvae on ash have molted to fifth instar.
The original larvae on chokecherry are now mostly third instars.
Four more larvae hatched. All of the larvae that have hatched over the days have been transferred onto chokecherry leaves in petri dishes in groups of about four. Some of these larvae dessicated, but so far the petri dish rearing seems effective. All of the laying females are now dead.

July 22

Three third instar larvae were found dead, two on chokecherry and one on ash. Certainly appears like disease symptoms, but the cases still remain relatively isolated and mainly occur in larvae that had been lagging behind for a long time.

July 21

A few of the larvae on tuliptree are now fifth instar.
Two third instars and a second instar were dead. This is the first time a third instar has died.
Three more hatched.

Brian Liang
Brian Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog, insects articles, and site design.

Papilio glaucus (Iowa) Rearing Notes (July 16, 2019–July 20, 2019)

7/20/2019

Rearing notes for eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Stock originated as F0 ("wild") eggs from Iowa, May 2019; currently in second generation.

July 20

A few of the larvae on tuliptree are molting to fifth instar. Most of the larvae on ash are molting to fourth instar. Most of the larvae on chokecherry are third instars. Despite the difference in hatch dates, it does seem that the growth rate on tuliptree is highest, though most variable, as noted.
The lagging larvae continue to die. A few were flaccid and slightly brown, leaving a few brownish or reddish stains. This is probably disease, but so far it has only occurred in the smallest, lagging larvae that may have already been unhealthy.
Two more hatched.
Collected just two eggs. Only the oldest female seems to have much life left in it.

July 19

About half of the larvae on tuliptree have molted to fourth instar, though a few of them are still second instar. Two of the larvae on ash have, but the majority are still third instar. Almost all of the larvae on chokecherry are newly molted third instars or full grown seconds. The larvae on ash seem to be quite small, but this time the larvae on tuliptree also seem to be substandard to last generation.
Ten more eggs hatched. The hatch rate was actually quite good for this lot of eggs collected on July 13, despite the apparent decline in egg quality.

July 18

A few of the larvae on tuliptree have molted to fourth instar.
Collected twenty-seven eggs laid yesterday and today. The oldest female has been laying since July 2, so I suppose that is quite an accomplishment.

July 17

We put the larvae on ash and chokecherry back into boxes because it was becoming too disorganized with three host plants and larvae of all instars in a single popup cage. Third and fourth instar larvae on tuliptree were kept in the popup cage. Lagging larvae were collected and consolidated in petri dishes to see if they will eventually get somewhere. With both glaucus and rutulus, we have seen larvae that occasionally take abnormally long to develop but are healthy. So far, there does not appear to be a wide outbreak of disease yet, but it is concerning that there are dead individuals each day, usually small first or second instars.
Fourteen eggs hatched and were transferred to chokecherry leaves in petri dishes. Perhaps petri dish rearing of lower instar larvae may be more effective than boxes.

July 16

A few of the larvae on tuliptree have molted to fourth instar.
It seems that allowing larvae to crawl freeing on cuttings in the popup cage may have exacerbated the problem of larvae growing out of sync. Larvae are of all instars and stages. Larvae from first to fourth instar are feeding on the same leaves and it doesn't seem like any the first instar larvae, which should be more or less the same age as the fourth instar larvae, will ultimately survive. The transferring of larvae from old to new cuttings in the popup cage is also problematic because they of course cannot cling onto the leaves without first spitting a trail of silk, meaning that there is a certain risk of larvae falling off the plant before they are able to do so and not being able to make it back. There certainly seems to be fewer larvae than what we began with in the popup cage.
Collected twenty-five more eggs, all laid on chokecherry, the only host plant offered this time, or the side of the cage. The yellow bellied female is near death, which is fitting seeing as it was laying infertile eggs. The oldest female is still plump, however, and it and the other female continue to lay eagerly. However, the eggs collected recently are small and seem of low quality. The fertility of the third female appears to be quite low. Although two weeks since the mating of the oldest female, her recent eggs do appear to still fertile, but hatch rate has noticeably declined.

Brian Liang
Brian Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog, insects articles, and site design.

Papilio zelicaon Rearing Notes (July 9, 2019–July 18, 2019)

7/18/2019

Rearing notes for anise swallowtails (Papilio zelicaon). Stock originated from Albany, California, Summer 2018.

July 18

A few more did pupate but are abnormally small due to the disease. There's certainly not much hope for the few remaining larvae, but there's always the off chance that one or two could have escaped or had immunity to the disease, so we'll keep them around and see.

July 17

One more pupated today and another has became a prepupa. However, the disease has nearly wiped out all the rest.

July 16

Looks like some of the fifth instars are now starting to succumb to the disease. So far only nine have pupated. Not sure if there’s hope for the rest.

July 15

Essentially all of the second and third instars were clearly diseased or already dead so we had to dispose of them all. Some of the fourth instars were diseased as well. No doubt individuals of all ages have been infected already but only the fifth instars, especially the largest ones, are still assymptomatic.

July 14

Unfortunately, there appears to be a disease breakout among the fourth and younger instars. The polyxenes still look healthy, so we know the outbreak started somewhere in the zelicaon colony. The lack of ventilation with this rearing hasn't helped, and it also didn't help that there was an inadequate amount of food given to them the day before. Probably as many as two dozen died and the remaining ones don’t look too healthy. We're not sure if we’ll be able to contain this disease. The twenty or so oldest fifth instars still look relatively healthy, so if they can at least make it, we'll be able to save the line.

July 13

There are quite a lot of fifth instars now. A few, presumably the oldest ones, look like they may be prepupae already.

July 12

Fifth instars are getting big.

July 11

About one to two dozen are now fifth instar. Many fourth instars now as well. Most umbels are now stocking this time of season so we’ve been giving them flowers to the older larvae which tend to prefer them over leaves.

July 10

A couple larvae molted to fifth instar. Most are still third or fourth instar.

July 9

A few of the larvae molted to fifth instar. Most are still anywhere between second and fourth instar. The variably in growth rate among the larvae seems unusually high this generation. The eggs were all laid within the same few days and yet there are already fifth instars when the last few eggs are still hatching.

Alan Liang
Alan Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog and photographs.

♀ Papilio zelicaon × ♂ Papilio polyxenes asterius Rearing Notes (July 14, 2019–July 16, 2019)

7/16/2019

Rearing notes for the larvae from our hybrid crosses between female anise swallowtails (Papilio zelicaon) (orig. Albany, California) and male black swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes asterius) (orig. Ithaca, New York).

July 16

Many larvae are now molting to fifth instar. Most of them honestly look very zelicaon-like, being very black, large, and stocky. A few are whiter/greener like the polyxenes.

July 15

Several more larvae molted to fourth instar. Based on the larger sample size, it seems that most larvae are intermediate in phenotype between that of the zelicaon and polyxenes fourth instar just like the reciprocal cross. However, it seems a larger proportion of them are closer to the black zelicaon phenotype than the green polyxenes one. This is interesting, since it seems the hybrid larvae might resemble the pure larvae of the maternal parent more.

July 14

A few molted to fourth instar. All of them are black form but have slightly thicker white bands than typical for zelicaon. Overall very similar to the reciprocal cross though no green forms have appeared yet.

Alan Liang
Alan Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog and photographs.

Papilio glaucus (Iowa) Rearing Notes (July 12, 2019–July 15, 2019)

7/15/2019

Rearing notes for eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Stock originated as F0 ("wild") eggs from Iowa, May 2019; currently in second generation.

July 15

A few of the third instars on tulip are molting to fourth whereas some are still first instar. Overall, the larvae that are at least second instar seem to be doing well now and there was more or less no mortality today on any of the host plants.
Interestingly enough, a few of the third instar larvae that were originally on tuliptree crawled onto the ash and one first instar larva that was originally on ash crawled onto the tuliptree and initiated feeding. Last year, we observed that larvae found on black cherry (Prunus serotina) readily and willingly switched to feed on tuliptree when leaves of both trees were in the same container. This seems to indicate that the larvae are able to switch readily between perhaps any of their hosts, at least up to a certain instar.
We transferred about twenty or so second instar larvae on chokecherry to propped up cuttings. As noted, the larvae on chokecherry are growing most in sync.

July 14

Eleven of the tuliptree larvae are now third instars. A similar amount are still first instars, which is concerning. The larvae have diverged in size greatly and those that are still first instar will likely perish as this is not a normal growth rate. We are not sure what is making this rearing so difficult. Death is not by desiccation and larvae are not necessarily overcrowded. Disease rarely occurs in the first instar, but we aren’t ruling it out yet. We transferred all of the third instar larvae onto a branch cutting of tuliptree propped up in a flask inside a large popup cage. We have always intended to rear these in ventilated conditions but started the newborn larvae in plastic containers for convenience.
Almost all of the larvae on ash have molted to second instar. Overall, they are more in sync than the larvae on tuliptree. The ash cuttings are clean, spacious, and do not wilt. Nonetheless, there are about a dozen that are still first instar and a number of straggling, unhealthy-looking first instars. All but a few molting larvae were transferred onto ash cuttings in 5 ml water tubes propped up in glass jars placed in a large popup cage.
The larvae on chokecherry are making fast progress considering they are the youngest. Three have molted to second instar and many are close to. It is early to say, but it would seem that chokecherry is an excellent host despite that the leaf quality is mediocre (most of the chokecherry trees we have access to are small and scraggly). The leaves grow densely, making the cuttings more spacious.

July 13

A few of the larvae on tuliptree have molted to third. The smallest on tuliptree are still first instar and don’t appear to be doing well. Larvae on ash and chokecherry seem to be progressing better in sync, but there are lagging individuals as well that will likely die. A number of larvae on ash have already molted to second. Several very small individuals were dead on each host plant, as usual. We aren’t sure why the results have been so inconsistent this rearing as an effort was made not to overcrowd larvae. The fastest developing larvae seem to be some of the only healthy individuals, but are likely all male, so we may have an extremely skewed sex ratio again.
Eggs laid yesterday and today were collected. There were eleven on the tuliptree, eleven on the chokecherry, and eighteen on the cage. Both of the cutting were quite wilted, especially the tuliptree which had dried to a crisp, which is the likely reason why so many eggs were laid on the cage this time. Except for the dark green infertile eggs, the eggs are getting progressively yellower and smaller as the days pass. Today we can found an egg so small, there was no way that it was viable. We are simply surprised that the females are still laying a decent number of eggs at their age.

July 12

The larvae on tuliptree have had to most varied results. About a dozen of the largest, oldest individuals are already second instar, but many of the smaller ones seem to be making abnormally slow progress, even after thinning the containers to four larvae each. Two were dead today. In comparison, most of the larvae on ash, which are housed five larvae to a container, have surpassed the smallest on tuliptree despite being born at least one day later. The larvae on chokecherry have made excellent progress despite being badly overcrowded. In general, it seems that the larvae are more comfortable when they are on their own leaf, even it is very small. Any larvae that crawl off the plant due to overcrowding suffer immensely as evidenced by the fact that they tend to be much smaller than those on the plant; once they crawl off, they are unable to find their way back, even in relatively small containers.
Thirty-six more hatched. Again, all were transferred onto chokecherry.

Brian Liang
Brian Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog, insects articles, and site design.

♀ Papilio polyxenes asterius × ♂ Papilio zelicaon Rearing Notes (July 13, 2019–July 15, 2019)

7/15/2019

Rearing notes for our black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius) larvae. Stock originated from eggs laid by a wild collected female in Ithaca New York, May 2019.

July 15

Many more larvae molted to fourth instar. A few of the largest ones are already molting to fifth instar. Now that we have a very large sample, it appears what we had thought was correct, and most larvae are intermediate between the zelicaon and polyxenes fourth instar phenotype and are quite variable because of this.

July 14

A few more molted to fourth instar. Interestingly, now that there is a larger sample of fourth instars, it appears that there is a mix of green (polyxenes-like) and black (zelicaon-like) individuals, and some that are intermediary between the extremes. Clearly, the fourth instar color plasticity is genetic which is why these hybrid fourth instars are displaying various intermediate phenotypes as well both of the parental ones. Overall, the larval shape of both color forms seem much more polyxenes-like though, being smaller, more slender, and having slightly smaller scoli and larger thorax to body ratio.

July 13

A few molted to fourth instar. This is probably the only instar is distinguishable between the pure parents, with zelicaon typically being black and polyxenes green under our particular rearing conditions. Like suspected, the hybrid larvae seem to resemble polyxenes much more which is what we observed in past readings of the cross.

Alan Liang
Alan Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog and photographs.

Timeline 2017–present
Ithaca, New York
This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations and experiences with various insects (primarily Lepidoptera) around the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York, starting from the time we moved here in 2017. As this is a personal blog, we try to keep collections/rearings for university research and course work to a minimum, and mainly focus on just the species we catch and raise for our own fun and interest. Posts prior to this time can be viewed at Timeline 2012-2017: Albany, California, though there is occasionally some crossover when we have returned home during breaks or reared stock derived from home (see Albany, California Updates).

Archives (232)
July 2020 (1)
August 2019 (2)
July 2019 (35)
June 2019 (46)
May 2019 (20)
March 2019 (1)
January 2019 (1)
November 2018*
October 2018*
September 2018 (1)*
August 2018 (9)*
July 2018 (11)*
June 2018 (22*)
May 2018 (18)*
April 2018 (2)*
January 2018 (6)
December 2017 (5)
November 2017 (1)
October 2017 (5)
September 2017 (26)
August 2017 (19)

*Currently, a significant portion of 2018 posts are missing. The notes/photos for this time period are saved on our personal files but the posts were never built due to a busy schedule that year. We are still actively building these posts when we have the time.

Authors

Full Species List
(Alphabetical by scientific name)
Note:
- Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting.
- We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with.

Lepidoptera
Actias luna
Agraulis vanillae
Allancastria cerisyi
Amphion floridensis
Ancyloxypha numintor
Antheraea polyphemus
Battus philenor hirsuta
Callosamia promethea
Colias eurytheme
Citheronia regalis
Cupido comyntas
Danaus plexippus
Darapsa myron
Diadema inscriptum
Epargyreus clarus
Erynnis baptisiae
Estigmene acrea
Euchaetes egle
Eumorpha pandorus
Hemaris diffinis
Hyalophora cecropia
Limenitis archippus
Liminitis arthemis arthemis
Limenitis arthemis astyanax
Manduca sexta
Orgyia leucostigma
Pachysphinx modesta
Paonias myops
Papilio cresphontes
Papilio eurymedon
Papilio glaucus
Papilio polyxenes asterius
Papilio rutulus
Papilio troilus
Papilio zelicaon
Pyrgus communis
Samia ricini
Smerinthus ophthalmica
Speyeria cybele
Sphecodina abbottii
Vanessa atalanta
Vanessa cardui
Vanessa virginiensis

Lepidoptera Hybrids
Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon

Orthoptera
Conocephalus sp.
Dissosteira carolina
Melanoplus femurrubrum
Neoconocephalus e nsiger
Neoxabea bipunctata

Phasmatodea
Carausius morosus
Diapheromera femorata

Mantodea
Mantis religiosa

Albany, California Updates

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