Received Our Overwintering Pupae from Albany, California

We have received some of our overwintering pupae from Albany, California.

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Since the weather has started to show signs of warming starting last Monday (not linearly but, on average, slowly but surely increasing) we had most of our pupae that were being kept refrigerated at our home in Albany, California sent to us which we received today. The pupae are, for the most part, in good condition. One Papilio eurymedon and one or two Smerinthus opthalmica dried out, several Manduca sexta seem to be rotting (may be disease as many of the last instar larvae of this brood died from disease), and a few lunas (Actias luna) are evidently dead (brood generally undersized and unhealthy). Surprisingly, all of the regals (Citheronia regalis) are alive. We can't quite tell with the cecropia (Hyalophora cecropia) at the moment since their cocoons are thick, but they seem more or less okay. ​All of the eastern festoons (Allancastria cerisyi) are alive. We did not have sent the rutulus (P. rutulus) for fear that they might eclose too early or in shipment, anise (P. zelicaon) because the umbels (Apiaceae) here have not grown out yet, or pipevines (Battus philenor hirsuta) because there is no pipevine (Aristolochia) here. 

The trees are just starting to leaf out, so the hope is that by the time that we eventually might obtain eggs from the pupae that we did receive, all of the food plants will be ready to use. For the native species, such as the cecropia and luna, we are also hoping that by taking them out of cold storage around the same time that the local weather is warming should help ensure that they eclose in sync with the local populations for the purpose of outbreeding with wild males. ​

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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. ​

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