Return to Albany, California (Winter Break 2017-2018): Actias luna

​We have returned to Albany, California from Ithaca, New York as per Cornell University's winter closing, giving us a chance to check on our overwintering pupae.

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Back in September, most of our luna moth (Actias luna) cocoons from larvae reared during the summer while we were still in Albany, California eclosed. Most of the moths were directly pinned by our mother (for no particular reason), shown below. 

But, we eggs were still obtained through a pairing for the sake of maintaining the stock. However, the eggs never hatched and we assumed that the pairing must not have been successful and that the eggs were infertile. However, now that we are back in Albany and have had a chance to examine these unhatched eggs, we can confirm that the eggs were in fact fertile because partially developed (green) larvae were visible underneath the egg shell. We suspect that, assuming that hatching conditions were normal, this may have to do with inbreeding as these eggs are at least the third generation inbred within this stock. In hindsight, this may also explain the severe dip in health of the second generation, marked with high mortality and extremely small size. A similar thing happened during the second inbred generation of larvae that we reared several years ago that originated from the same breeder. While this is purely speculation, the fact is that inbreeding is never a good thing in the long run. . . but unless there is an easy way or a very compelling reason to attempt to avoid it, it is the best option we have.

With that said, we are still keeping the handful of cocoons that did not eclose. All of them are dark brown, so are assumed to be in diapause and not dead. 

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Authors
Brian Liang

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