The last of our regal moth (Citheronia regalis) larva that have not pupated has died, ending the rearing project for this year. On the day that we left, there were still three regals (Citheronia regalis) that were still feeding. All three were small and far behind the rest in development with two of suspect for disease. At the time, we didn't want to over-complicate matters by having to find a way to keep them alive during the family leave and to make our mother take care of them when she got back, so we decided to simply toss the two suspect ones and hoped the last one would finish feeding quickly enough. By the time our mother came back on August 20 and checked on this last one, it was still alive but unfortunately was not a prepupa yet and had nothing to eat because all of the leaves had dried out. We thought that it would surely finish and pupate soon though, but it never did. Today our mother reported that it is now dead after spending a few days as a prepupa. Now that the older, healthier ones are already done pupating and all, this really isn't a big deal to us, but it is something sort of interesting to note. We really don't know exactly went wrong, but from the pictures it's probably just disease. We have seen similar things happen in other saturniids and in sphingids during the prepupal stage. As for the final data on our regal pupae, we have 5.77, 5.97, 6.1, 6.24, 6.33, 6.45, 6.54, 8.12, and 8.82 (weighed August 20) and 6.6, 6.62, 6.8, 6.97, 7.00, 7.13, and 7.94 (weighed August 22). None of them were guaranteed to have been weighed within 24 hours of pupation like we usually do, so it may be slightly inaccurate in terms of control. The mean is 6.8413 (Sx = 0.8258, n = 16); the median is 6.61. We definitely hoped for bigger pupae (and bigger larva to begin with), but for this first time we are still impressed by their size. We will be sure to get some shots of these when we return home during break. ![]() Authors Brian Liang
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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 ensiger Neoxabea bipunctata Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Diapheromera femorata Mantodea Mantis religiosa Albany, California Updates |