The second and third of our pale swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon) pupae has eclosed. Originated from Utah and Oregon. ​

Two more eurymedons (Papilio eurymedon) eclosed today, one in the mid-morning and another in mid-afternoon. The second one, shown below, is oddly plump for a male. The abdomen appears soft and bloated, 

The second one, which emerged in the afternoon, hardened its wings far quicker than the first. It has quite a bit more black (thicker stripes) than the first two, which is a bit interesting. 

Here are the two together. The first one is on the right and the second, darker one is on the left.

Late this afternoon, the first eurymedon (Papilio eurymedon) eclosed. It is a small male who has slightly crumpled, uneven wings (the left forewing is slightly indented upwards while the right one is indented inwards), a nasty abdomen, and scraggly looking third pair of legs. It is possible that this one is particularly weak or unhealthy or if the overwintering of the pupae generally took a tole on the pupae, seeing as so many of them have already died before making it this far. Nonetheless, it is still a stunning butterfly.

Now seeing and P. eurymedon up close and photographing it for the first time, the commonly described differences between it an the other tiger species (e.g. P. rutulus, P. multicaudata, P. glaucus) are self-evident. Compare to some previous photographs of males of these other species that we have taken (do excuse the quality of the latter two images). 

Besides the thickness of the black stripes and the paleness of the yellow, the eurymedon has a very characteristic triangular wing shape; the fore- and hindwings are straight and pointy. The rutulus is also fairly triangular compared to glaucus and multicaudata, but not quite to the extent of eurymedon. Interestingly enough, this eurymedon has quite a lot of blue for how much black there is; generally, with rutulus, we observe that the smaller and blacker an individual is, the less blue. Like the multicaudata, eurymedon usually has two pairs of the spots at the tails that are orange/red like the one that eclosed today does, whereas rutulus has only one. 

Four of our pale swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon) pupae are now showing visible signs of development. Originated from Utah and Oregon. 

On May 9 and May 13, our Smerinthus ophthalmica pupae and luna (Actias luna) cocoons started eclosing, respectively, and now we are getting some clear signs that the eurymedons (Papilio eurymedons) and eastern festoons (Allancastria cerisyi​) are about to burst as well. 

Four of the eurymedons are, to varying degree, pharate. The two leftmost pupae in the top left image below used to be bright green and are more transparent, although they do seem to be the furthest in development as well. One thing to notice is that the wing plates on these pharate pupae is yellow; on the pharate pupae of the other tiger species (e.g. P. rutulus, P. multicaudata, P. glaucus) they tend to be orange. The euymedon adults are, of course, much paler in color than the other species and the pigmentation of the uninflated wing reflects that here. On another note, we are down to only nine of these pupae now (from 12) and, interestingly, these four are the smallest of the nine. It is likely that they are males but, ideally, it would be best if at least one of them is female so that we have a better chance at obtaining a pairing. 

None of the eastern festoons seem to be dead; we still have all 12 that we started with. Many of them now show signs of development, but only two, shown below, look very close to eclosing. 

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. ​

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. ​

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. ​

Ideally, we probably should have done it immediately when we returned to Albany California in mid-December or perhaps even ask our mother to do it for us even earlier, but as of today we have begun refrigerating (40°F/4-5°​C) our pupae that require it. 

These include: all of the Saturniidae--cecropia (Hyalophora cecropia), luna (Actias luna), and regal (Citheronia regalis); Manduca sexta; and, we are assuming, the pale swallowtails (Papilio eurymedon), which come from Utah/Oregon, and eastern festoon (Allancastria cerisyi). Although our Smerinthus opthalmica pupae are native stock that do not require cold treatment, we also decided to toss twenty of so of these in as well as a risk splitting measure because it is difficult to predict what the situation will be when the ones outside the refrigerator emerge. Ideally, we would have put all of the opthalmica pupae in the refrigerator as well as the diapausing pupae of the other species we have such as the western tigers (Papilio rutulus​) and anise (Papilio zelicaon) swallowtails but because all of these are native, it could potentially be harmful in the long run.