​Rearing notes for our snowberry clearwing sphinx (Hemaris diffinis) prepupal larvae collected in Ithaca, New York, June 2019.

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• One of the larvae molted to fourth instar overnight. Again, its appearance remains more or less unchanged from previous instars except that it has more yellow around the head and horn. 
  
• Unfortunately, one of the second instar larvae had apparently mismolted and died.
  

​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.

Rearing notes for our snowberry clearwing sphinx (Hemaris diffinis) larvae collected in Ithaca, New York, June 2019.

We collected several Hemaris diffinis larvae on  honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) and a Darapsa myron egg on grape (Vitis sp.) at Triphammer Falls.

Rearing notes for our snowberry clearwings (Hemaris diffinis) collected as eggs and larvae in Ithaca, New York, July–August 2018.

We have taken pupae of Darapsa myron, Hemaris diffinis, and Paonias myops, and eggs of Diapheromera femorata out of the refrigerator to break diapause as the growing season begins.

Following up on the other species we have already taken out of the refrigerator on 5/1 and 5/8, we decided to take the remaining of our diapausing pupae out of the refrigerator, all native sphinx species: Darapsa myron, Hemaris diffinis, and Paonias myops. All the Darapsa myron and Hemaris diffinis pupae were clearly alive based on appearance and occasional movements. Two of the four Paonias myops pupae were clearly dead, leaving two live ones. We placed pupae from all three species on a paper towel and put a small wire cage over them for eclosion. 

We also took our northern walkingstick, Diapheromera femorata, eggs out of the refrigerator as well. We have no prior experience raising this species from egg, so we don't know when to anticipate hatching. 

Like the silkmoth species we took out on 5/1 and 5/8, we intend to obtain pairings from these pupae to begin this year's generation. We expect them eclose relatively quickly due to their small size, perhaps in two weeks, in early or mid June. Since Darapsa myron and Paonis myops are both highly multivoltine, wild males should probably be in flight at anytime should be attempt to call them in with the captive females. We are less sure about Hemaris diffinis though, which, although is definitely not obligatorily univoltine, appears to peak in flight around late summer.

Should we not attempt to call in wild males (which might actually be difficult since it would be tricky to create a cage with small enough holes that would prevent the female from escaping but large enough for the male to copulate with her since these are all relatively small sphinx species [though we could try]), simply letting the captive males pair with the females might be a viable option for these species. We are fairly confident that the Darapsa myron and Hemaris diffinis pupae are from multiple lineages (since they were wild obtained as eggs/larvae in various occasions) and thus inbreeding would not be a issue. The only problem would be the two Paonis myops (one male and female) pupae which are actually siblings.

After a chaotic week of flight delays due to snow storms on the East Coast, we have finally made our way from California back to Ithaca. Since a sustained period of cold is necessary for most diapausing pupae to break diapause in the spring, we placed two airtight plastic boxes full of pupae from our last summer's rearings into the refrigerator, set to 5° C. Ideally we would have done this much earlier (probably in October when it starts getting chilly outside), but since the dorms require us to unplug refrigerators over Winter Break, we decided to wait until after we came back. Hopefully, the 3-4 months in the refrigerator will be sufficient enough for the pupae to undergo a normal diapause (assuming we take them out in May). 

The species overwintering are as follows (locality/date stock originated): Papilio glaucus (New York 2018), Papilio rutulus (California 2017), Papilio zelicaon (California 2017), Hyalophora cecropia (New York 2016), Callosamia promethea (New York 2018), Antheraea polyphemus (New York 2018), Darapsa myron (New York 2018), Hemaris diffinis (New York 2018), and Paonias myops (New York 2018).  

Also included were our batch of northern walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata) eggs from last fall. We are unsure of the conditions required for these eggs to undergo normal diapause and break it, but assume it follows the same principle as lepidopteran pupae.

Alas, the list of pupae is much shorter than we had hoped, since many of the species we reared last summer never entered diapaused and the stock was lost (Papilio troilus, Papilio cresphontes, Actias luna, Pachysphinx modesta, Eumorpha pandora, to name a few...). Nonetheless, we are grateful for the species that did make it and look forward to rearing them again this summer.