The first of our Diapheromera femorata eggs hatched. Stock originated from wild collected females in Ithaca, New York, August 2018. Last fall, we found several adult Diapheromera femorata males and females that eventually produced hundreds of eggs. We put these in the fridge to overwinter along with our Lepidoptera pupae and took the eggs out on May 25. After less than a month, one of the eggs finally hatched. The newborn is bright green with a slender body, very elongated legs, and a slightly curled abdomen with a pair of cerci at the tip. The egg shell was stuck to its hind leg when we first saw it, a common problem for stick insect newborns due to insufficient humidity, which may have caused its leg to be bent. Compared to the small brown newborns of Carausius morosus which we reared in California, this newborn is quite a lot larger with much more elongated legs and does not hold its abdomen nearly as curled. They also took much longer to hatch and required humidity cues to do so, unlike these that quite promptly began hatching after overwintering. We have never reared this species from egg, so we do not know what host plants are ideal for the nymphs. We fed the adults oak last fall which worked very well since it is supposedly the preferred host for the adults. However, we are not sure if the newborn nymphs will eat it since the leaves are extremely tough. For now, we gave it a cutting of oak and put it in a plastic container and will leave it overnight to see if it eats any. If it doesn’t, we will try some alternative plants. Since we want to prevent future newborns from having their egg shells stuck to their leg, we transferred the eggs from the petri dish to a plastic container and sprayed them with water. ![]() Alan Liang Alan 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 and photographs.
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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 |