Although we have generally been unimpressed by the insect diversity in the Bay Area, it is hard to deny that we are concerned about the loss of stock of a few major species that we did have access to in Albany, California and not in Ithaca, New York. As of this winter break, we still maintain a decent number of wetern tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) pupae, reared from the summer, as described in this recent post; these are probably the most important considering how difficult it already would be to maintain a stock of them even if did not have to leave to Ithaca. As for the other native species, we still have a handful of anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) pupae reared or collected by our mother while we were in Ithaca, a fair number of pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor hirsuta) pupae from larvae reared in summer, and a large number of Smerinthus opthalmica pupae also from larvae reared in the summer. 

It is especially important that we maintain this stock of anise because they are something that we could conceivably rear in Ithaca and would be very difficult to obtain otherwise (from other breeders). Further, if we encounter P. polyxenes asterius at some point in Ithaca, it would be a grand opportunity to conduct further experiments between the two, including hybridization. The main problem right now is that, at least historically and when reared in captivity, this local stock has proven to be quite poor in the execution of the winter diapause. Already we have thrown away a significant number of dead pupae while inspecting them today and can expect their numbers to continue to steadily decline before a chaotic emergence sometime in the spring. In fact, we have never had a huge success with breeding these from overwintering pupae and have always much more on collecting eggs as they appear in the wild in order to reinvigorate the colony. Nevertheless, the pupae that we have now are certainly better than nothing and if worst comes to worst, we can ask or mother to collect eggs for us as we still have fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) growing in our yard in Albany. 

The pipevine pupae arguably suffer an even higher diapause mortality rate (and losses from stray emergences) than the anise since most of them already enter diapause very early in the year. Less than half of what we initially had in June have made it to this winter break. The good thing is that, although they are one of the few species truly unique to our time in Albany (most other species at least have a regional counterpart in Ithaca), our hopes of breeding these was never high, so we will not concern ourselves too much with them. In the past, we have never been able to get the females to lay eggs in captivity, and even if we somehow managed to do it, we do not have easy access to live pipevine (Aristolochia spp.) plants  in Albany or Ithaca. Even if we were to stay in Albany, the most logical thing to do if we really did want to continue rearing them would be to just collect a fresh stock of them come Spring where the eggs and larvae are extremely easy to find in big numbers; the same cannot be said of the eggs and larvae of the other native species mentioned in this post. 

The opthalmica, like the rutulus and anise, are very important. Not only are they the easiest of the three to breed, both in Albany and in Ithaca, we also have the largest number of them (200+), even after finding a few dead ones and one that had been fed on by some sort of flesh-eating fly larvae (presumably not parasites). We can afford to make mistakes with these so we are considering risk-splitting them with several treatments: some we will overwinter in the refrigerator, some we will keep outside, and some we might bring over to Ithaca. 

Upon returning back to Albany California, we now have a fresh generation of Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus).

Prior to leaving Albany in August 2017, we found an adult Indian stick insect that began laying eggs while we were away. ​Now that we are back, there are a dozen or two young nymphs that our mother has been looking after. Good thing for her, these require extremely low maintenance to care for even while we are away. They just need a clean plastic container with some rose or bramble cuttings which last 2-3 weeks before they need to be changed if the nymphs are young. They seem to like bramble cutting better since the leaves are softer and easier to bite, but it's quite difficult to find any leaves at all during this time of year. Luckily, our mother has been able to get by with some decent rose cuttings from our backyard. Th nymphs look quite healthy and vibrant green but are growing slowly due to the cool weather. 

When we first decided to purchase the stock as eggs online from a pet store in June, it was mainly just for the sake of seeing one representative of the Sphinginae and because the species is exceptionally easy to rear, grows fast, and performs well on cultivated tomato (Solanum) which we happened to have. There was no serious obligation to continue breeding them once we had seen them out through one life cycle since the species, however interesting, is so easily obtainable at any time and thus readily disposable. 

With this in mind, it would have made a lot of sense to force the larvae that we reared over the summer to diapause as pupae if we had known that we would never see them emerge anyway, after leaving to Ithaca, New York in August. We would miss out on perhaps the most important aspect of rearing this species through, which was to gain insight on how to care for the adults and experience on how to breed them--knowledge that may be useful in the future or to other, similar species. Fortunately, when the moths did emerge in September while we were away, our mother was able to try her hand at it and was able to successfully breed them as described in this old post. The moths that were not used for breeding were pinned (unprofessionally) so that we could view them upon our return. A few of these pinned moths are shown below. 

Although they are diapausing, these pupae squirm intensely when making contact with them!

​We have returned to Albany, California from Ithaca, New York as per Cornell University's winter closing, giving us a chance to check on our overwintering pupae.

This is the second in a series of posts that we will be making to address each of the species that we are still keeping in Albany, California, now that we are physically there over winter break, that will be covering the western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) pupae from larvae that were reared in August of this year.

The last post that was made regarding these pupae was just a few days after we moved to Ithaca, New York where we recorded the final mass data after all of the larvae had pupated as reported by our mother. 

Although all but three of the larvae had already pupated while we were still in Albany, this is the first time that we can officially showcase all of the pupae together, which is shown below. 

Interestingly, all three of the last pupae were light morphs, whereas 100% of the other pupae were dark with the exception of a few that we allowed to pupate outside on trees instead of in empty tubs. While nobody was home to see what was taking place in the last days of these three individuals' larval stages, it is assumed that they spent almost or all of their time as prepupae in the container that they were being kept in that was stuffed with willow (Salix) cuttings, suggesting that some factor related to presence of live plant material may influence color.  

While the overwintering naked pupae of most other species we have reared usually experience a fair number of losses, all of these rutulus pupae are still alive, which is both somewhat surprising and a relief, although there are still a few more months to go before they are to eclose. This high survival rate can probably be owed to a combination of excellent sanitation, both before and after pupation, and to the fact that this is local stock that follow very strict seasonality and so are well suited for going through this type of long diapause. The same cannot be said of the local anise swallowtails (Papilio zelicaon), which breed vigorously and haphazardly for as long as they possibly can, or the local pipevine swallowtails (Battus philenor hirsuta) that have a chaotic diapause pattern reminiscent of the tropics; both typically suffer significant losses during diapause. 

After four months in Ithaca, we have finally returned to our permanent residence in Albany, California where we still have a heap of overwintering pupae. This is the first of several posts that we will be making to update status of each species. 

In early September, we made a brief post indicating that the last of our regal moth (Citheronia regalis) larvae that we reared during the summer had finished pupating that also included a few photographs of prepupal larvae and pupal mass data that we received via email, both courtesy of our mother. But because the pupae were formed during our absence, this is actually the first time that we ourselves are seeing and photographing them; below are new photographs taken today of the thirteen pupae that are now three months old. 

​The sex ratio is oddly skewed with only three of them being female, but at least our hope of breeding a second generation with this stock was quite limited anyway as it is for numerous reasons. The pupae are very hard and fairly stiff; they do not squirm. Although they are glossy, most of the cuticle is actually rough with very distinct separation of segments, especially of the last one, and several odd bumps such as the pair of tough, elevated plates on the thorax. The head and mass of appendages, for some reason, have very little separation between them though. Overall, although they look quite similar to the pupae of the relatively closely related imperial moth (Eacles imperialis), the regal pupae have significantly shorter cremesters and are pitch black rather than dark brown.

While we were away, these pupae were kept in a small plastic tub which, in all honesty, was probably not a very good housing solution for an extended periods of time given climate of the house. Fortunately, all thirteen pupae that were present upon our return appear to be alive (although sixteen data points were previously recorded?). However, before taking the pictures that are shown, they were covered in a few tiny white mites that we can only assume must have been eating away at what dead external material and were not necessarily harming the pupae themselves. Like most pupae, they have a distinctive, somewhat unpleasant, odor to them.