Hyalophora cecropia eggs from the first two pairings have begun to hatch. We discuss our thoughts on what host plants we are considering to use for this year's rearing. 

Two of the three captive Hyalophora cecropia females we set outside paired with wild males last night. These are the first pairings of this year.

On the third night since we started setting captive females outside to call in wild males, we finally got pairings with two of the three females. The two females were the larger of the three, one of which eclosed three days ago that failed to call in a male the past two nights, and the other of which that just eclosed yesterday. Both also happened to be in the wire cage with larger holes (1 square inch) that we switched to last night since we suspected the cage with smaller holes (1/2 square inch) that we used the past two nights was physically preventing males from copulating with the female. The female that failed to pair was the smallest of the three and was in the cage with smaller holes. This suggests that our suspicion was perhaps correct, though sample size is small and it could be a coincidence. Either way, though, we'd rather play it safe and use the one with larger holes from now on, even if there is a small risk smaller individuals could escape.

The wild males in the pairings were still paired with the females long after the sun rose and remained coupled until dawn. Like we observed last year with the wild males called in, they are extremely large compared to our captive males and even a bit larger than the females. Alas, growth in the wild must be much superior to captive, crowded, conditions even when reared in sleeves. In addition, the males have darker, more contrasting colors, with a darker gray ground color, crisper white and red margins, and darker red body. This differs from our captive individuals (both male and female), which tend to have a lighter grey ground color that is infused with more white and yellow scales and have lighter red bodies. We noticed the same thing last year and weren't sure if it were genetic or environmental. We are starting to suspect it is more environmental at this point, since the males from last year and this year have been consistently this darker phenotype. Perhaps the temperature and humidity that the cocoons diapaused or developed under affected the coloration? Not sure if we would ever know for sure but it's an interesting to note.

We have taken pupae of Papilio glaucus, Papilio rutulus, and Papilio zelicaon, and cocoons of Hyalophora cecropia and Callosamia promethea out of the refrigerator to break diapause as the growing season begins.

Earlier in January of this year, we put all of our pupae from last summer's rearings in the refrigerator at 5° C  for them to overwinter. Now that the weather is becoming consistently warm (20+ °C) and the leaves beginning, we decided to some of the species out to break diapause.

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.