Today we went collecting spicebush swallowtail (Papilio troilus) eggs for the first time at Mundy Wildflower Garden in Ithaca, New York. In the past week, we have been focusing solely on locating the larval stage of the spicebush swallowtail (Papilio troilus) on the spicebush (Lindera benzoin) at Mundy Wildflower Garden. The big problem with this species is that it is difficult to focus on finding the larvae and the eggs at the same time because the larvae and their conspicuous leaf nests are always on the uppersides of leaves whereas the eggs are always laid on the undersides. Yesterday we realized that we had inadvertently brought home an egg on the cutting we picked the day before, making our first ever egg of the species after finding 18 larvae. It was already murky with black spots at the top (the larva's head) when we first saw it, and at some point it must have turned completely black because it already hatched today. The newborn larvae are a pale gray with white, which explains the light coloration of the egg that actually has a clear shell. Except for the difference in color and the small size, they look almost identical to P. rutulus newborn larvae, a fellow member of Pterorous. Anyway, today we set out to search for eggs exclusively at Mundy where we have already depleted most of the larvae anyhow. We ended up finding a total of 15 eggs, but they did not come easy. . . I think we learned quite a lot from this trip about the butterflies' preferences. Almost all of the eggs were found on two trees located on the perimeter of the garden and near water. Because spicebush is such a small tree, it is normally shaded in the garden itself where there are a lot of other trees; the shade gets progressively worse as you go through the trails. Although we have found larvae on many of the trees inside the garden and some, to our great surprise, on completely shaded and well hidden trees deep within the trail, it seems that in the end, the open areas are still the best as one would expect. We wasted an obscene amount of time searching the shaded plants which, perhaps also partially by bad luck, did not have any eggs whatsoever. Most of the eggs that were not on the two sunny trees were on a very small tree near the perimeter. We also found four first instar larvae on it hiding out on the underside of the leaves; it seems that because the eggs are laid on the underside, the newborn larvae stay there and don't make nests until the second instar. On the trees themselves, the eggs were only ever located near the tips of branches, particularly ones that just out from the rest of the plant, and somewhere off to the side of the mid-vein in the center of the leaf. This preference for the periphery or isolated portions of the plant is shared by P. zelicaon and is probably something that is true of most swallowtails in general. There did not ever seem to be a single branch with more than one egg. Although swallowtails usually prefer new growth, especially in hosts with tough leaves such as Rutaceae, we did not observe this in today's collection. It is to be noted, however, that little to no growth exists on the trees during this time of year. The newly laid eggs are a pale, white, and somewhat translucent. The slightly olders ones seem to be slightly yellower and alost resemble newly laid eggs of P. zelicaon. Development is otherwise not very obvious in the species. ![]() 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 |