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Papilio rutulus L4 Rearing Notes (7/26/17-7/31/17)

7/31/2017

Rearing notes for western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) fourth instar larvae. Stock originated as eggs laid by a captive female, originally found as an egg in Albany, California and hand-paired to a male captured also in Albany, California, on July 7.

Rearing notes 7/26/17-7/31/17:

7/31:

Because of the cool temperatures, the larvae that entered apolysis yesterday still have not molted
A few more have entered apolysis and are not larger in size; most measure about 22-23 mm and weigh in the 0.5-0.6 range; however, there is a young larva that is already quite large at 0.62 g

7/30:

As we had anticipated based on yesterday's developments, the larvae that have entered apolysis are disappointingly small with the largest being only 0.54 g compared to 0.7 and 0.6 g of our previous rearings

7/29:

The larvae are definitely growing at a much slower pace than before due to cooler temperatures (the hottest it ever got during the day was 73 °F)
The largest larva is only 0.46 g; looking back at old notes, the larvae this time seem so far seem to be quite small starting since last instar; it is possible that the rapid growth caused by the incubator could have negatively effected their size

7/28:

After taking them out of the incubator, the larvae have slowed down but are still making steady progress; they are getting quite plump and are at 0.4 g
As more of them molt to fourth instar, it is clear that there is a correlation between how dark they were in the third instar and how large their saddles are and how dark their eyespots are

7/27:

We have moved the older fourth instars out of the incubator and into opaque tubs to try to make sure that they will diapause; hopefully they can make it to pupation in the twenty days left

7/26:

Three larvae molted to fourth instar this evening, eating their skins entirely after molting; so far they are all green with white saddles, having been intermediate form in the third instar

Authors
Brian Liang

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Actias luna L5 Rearing Notes (7/22/17-7/31/17)

7/31/2017

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Rearing notes for our luna moth (Actias luna) fifth instar larvae. The stock originated as eggs from Alabama, April 2017.

Rearing Notes 7/22/17-7/31/17:

7/31:

The largest larva is at 5.2 g and several others are in the mid-high 4 g range

7/30:

The largest larva is at 4.6 g, so perhaps getting close to full grown if male based on past weight recordings
Unusually, upon exposing the larvae with strange colored tubercles, their tubercles began changing color, turning brighter and redder as shown above with the purple tubercle larva; we observed a color change in tubercles in the spring rearing as well, but with fourth instar larvae; it seems that somehow sun is required for the normal tubercle coloration in this species

7/29:

The largest larvae are still in the low 4 g range

7/28:

With the majority of the larvae in fifth instar, it is not only apparent that 100% have brown head capsules (though two are greenish intermediates), but also that the tubercle coloration is unusually variable and strange - besides the individuals with red (most common and typical), there are also larvae with purple, yellow, and bluish grey tubercles - quite a strange mix
The largest larva is at 4.2 g

7/27:

Larvae are quite large now and feed at a rapid pace; the tubercles are becoming very small in relation to the body and the lateral yellow stripe has become increasingly fainter, giving the larva greener appearances

7/26:

The larvae are growing quickly now, becoming very plump with convex segments
Still no larvae with green head capsules; even fourth instars that previously had green head capsules molted into brown head capsule fifth instars

7/25:

Strangely, despite that more and more larvae are entering fifth instar everyday, not a single one of them has had a green a capsule so far; this is truly quite unusual, unless perhaps the coloration is an indicator of whether the larva is destined to diapause? (i.e. diapause=brown, non-diapause=variable between green or brown?)

7/24:

Now that there are about a dozen fifth instars, it's starting to seem quit unusual for all of them to be the brown head capsule morph, and even stranger is the tubercle coloration of some of the newer ones - rather than being the typical pink or red, they're purplish or bluish grey; perhaps it is just genetics and this lineage happened to have some odd genes, as the parents of these larvae were similarly colored, though mainly during the fourth instar, not fifth

7/23:

A few more larvae molted to fifth instar, all, surprisingly, with brown head capsules and dark tubercles; larvae with green head capsules and pink tubercles have yet to molt

7/22:

The first larvae molted into fifth instar after spending 10 days in fourth instar; it is a rather smaller one with a brown head capsule

Authors
Alan Liang

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Mexican Bush Katydid Pictures

7/30/2017

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Today we took some pictures of our adult Mexican bush katydids (Scudderia mexicana). Originated from eggs laid by captive reared wild females of Summer 2016.

It has been extremely hectic with everything else we've been rearing this summer, so it was difficult to keep up with our Mexican bush katydids (Scudderia mexicana), both in terms of this site and in real life. Because we haven't been giving them the best treatment, they seem to be on the smaller side. Most of their life, they have been eating plum (Prunus) cuttings and hibiscus flowers (Hibiscus) among other random things that were only changed out once every week or so. Although it was pretty horrible, orthopterans generally tend to not mind dry stuff so they were still able to grow and develop normally.

But now that they are adults, we decided to give them a run today. Below is a male. It has a broken foot that looks that have been eaten by another katydid (cannibalism is a common problem when rearing them together), but is otherwise in excellent shape.

And here is a female, in perfect condition.

It could have been possible to try to breed these again, but the male flew away in the process of taking photos. This may be the last time we ever have anything to do with this species again because we are leaving. The first time we ever saw them was nine years ago when we were still little kids! It has been a very long run rearing them almost every year since.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Samia cynthia advena L3 Rearing Notes (7/26/17-7/29/17)

7/29/2017

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Rearing notes for cynthia silkmoth (Samia cynthia advena) third instar larvae. Stock originated as pupae from Pennsylvania.

Rearing notes 7/26/17-7/29/17:

7/29:

The oldest larvae have entered apolysis and are only 17 mm versus 20 mm in S. ricini; we are starting to suspect that the rapid growth caused by incubation could be negatively effecting the size of our larvae

7/28:

The larvae are getting much larger and whiter now but not nearly to the extent of S. ricini; S. ricini would only have a few black dots going down the center
The tubercles are still very prominent and are, perhaps, longer than those of S. ricini

7/27:

The larvae are starting to gain some powder, especially around the tubercles, making them whiter

7/26:

The third instar larvae are surprisingly still completely yellow (including the head capsule) with lots of black spots and powderless, much like last instar, except the tubercles are larger; Samia ricini would already be completely white without any markings and black head capsules

Authors
Brian Liang

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Papilio zelicaon Rearing Notes (7/12/17-7/29/17)

7/29/2017

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Rearing notes for anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) fifth instar larvae obtained as eggs or larvae in Albany, El Cerrito, and Berkeley California.

Rearing notes 7/12/17-7/29/17:

7/29:

Really starting to solidify here. . . still males at 0.97 (n=85) and females at 1.13 (n=81)
Another female happened to come by today, laying eggs as always

7/28:

Males at 0.97 (n=83) and females at 1.13 (n=80)

7/27:

Males at 0.97 (n=81) and females at 1.13 (n=79)

7/26:

The averages are dropping slightly but to the second decimal they are still the same; n=75, n=74
Interestingly, one of the pupa on a green stem is brown and probably diapausing whereas close to 100% of those that pupate on the gray surface of the opaque tub are turning out bright green; it must simply be very hard to control these very well. . . how prone they are to diapause is clearly strongly genetic

7/25:

One more pupated (n=66, n=72), but the averages are still the same

7/24:

And still, males at 0.98 (n=65) and females at 1.13 (n=72)
A female came by and laid some eggs today, right before our eyes

7/23:

All lot of small females recently, really dragging down the female average while the male average is creeping higher. . . the gap is really closing now with males at 0.98 (n=60) and females at 1.14 (n=66)

7/22:

Most of the newer larvae are very small, possibly because of different genetics; the averages have dropped today with males at 0.97 (n=51) and females at 1.15 (n=58)

7/21:

The averages are now still at 0.98 (n=44) for males and 1.17 (n=51) for females
Unless they just do it on the side of the container, the prepupae in the tub like to make their girdles on the flower stocks
We saw a female fly by and lay some eggs, so the flight is still going strong. . .

7/20:

The averages are now at 0.98 (n=38) for males and 1.19 (n=34) for females
It seems that most all of the prepupae that were put in the incubator (80°F) for at least a day before pupating end up green

7/19:

A lot of females pupated today compared to yesterday including a 1.5 g whopper, probably because they grow slower, slightly evening out the count which is now at 29 males and 21 females; the averages are at 0.98 and 1.2 now
We took a few shots of a fifth instar on a flower stock to make the life history page more complete and representative

7/18:

Lots of prepupae and pupae now; most of them seem to respond very well to the color of the substrate, changing a whitish brown if they were on the clear surface of tank or black on the screening; mistakes tend to be green on darker surfaces and not the other way around
The pupal weights seem very consistent for this species with females clearly being slightly heavier; the average male for this year's rearing is now at 0.97 (n=22) while the average female is at 1.18 (n=13)

7/17:

The larvae are still growing at an absurd rate; tons of them are now becoming prepupae
The color forms of these larvae are all over the place despite all being reared indoors without sun; some are still fairly green (no very light forms though) and some are very black and whitish; a few even have traces of a white saddle

7/16:

The larvae eat the buds and flowers eagerly, although it is questionable if they are superior to the leaves, which are high quality new growth
A few have already become prepupa after less than a week's time after it got hot today; it seems that this species responds especially well to heat

7/15:

We have moved the larvae into an opaque tub in hopes that it will induce diapause in this highly multivoltine strain (very weak diapause in the winter. . .) and it is hard to know whether it will be effective at this instar and with such high temperatures

7/12:

Massive amounts of larvae are molting to fifth instar now so we have moved them into a large tub

Authors
Brian Liang

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Mediterranean Katydid Pictures

7/29/2017

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Today we took some pictures of our sixth instar Mediterranean katydids (Phaneroptera nana). Originated from eggs laid by captive reared wild-caught females of Summer 2016.

Just like with the Mexican bush katydids (Scudderia mexicana), we haven't been keeping up with these very well this year. We have been rearing the two species side by side so when we took the mexicana out to photograph, we also took these out. They are currently in sixth instar and very close to molting to adult. This mexicana have already been adults for several days but these hatched later (which is consistent with when and what age we usually find them in the wild).

Although we have so few of them this year, we still managed to pull our luck with a brown morph. It looks like it's going to be mostly brown as an adult too. The only problem is that it has a broken hindleg. . . A green morph is also shown below.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Fiery Skippers

7/29/2017

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The fiery skippers (Hyephila phyleus) around here are becoming extremely common as the season progresses.

It's about time we made a post about these - their the second most dominant skipper species here in Albany, California behind the umber skipper (Poanes melane). We can't really go a day here in the summer without seeing a bunch, especially with all the flowers in our front yard. Their not really picky feeders, nectaring from many small flowers. Unlike umbers, which are pretty common anytime starting from April to October, fieries tend to be less common at first but get more common as the season progresses and become very abundant at this time of year. In fact, they might even be more common then umbers by now.

We've never really tried getting eggs out of them (though if their like umbers, they'll just lay anywhere without a cage set-up or host plant) or have found any in the wild, so we don't know anything about the larvae. They should just take a variety of grasses like Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), but we've only ever found umbers on them. We haven't really looked too hard for them though, since their not the most interesting butterfly (just your everyday backyard skipper), but then again, maybe we've been taking them for granted as we won't be seeing any fieries or umbers once we move to Ithaca, New York.

Authors
Alan Liang

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Gulf Fritillary Lays Egg

7/28/2017

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Today we saw a gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) lay an egg on our passionflower (Passiflora).

Well, just as we were taking the last set of photos for our last run of gulfs (Agraulis vanillae) that had pupated on our potted passionflower (Passiflora), an adult female decided to swoop in and lay. It didn't stay for long though, so only one egg was laid on the potted passionflower. It was laid on one of the vine shoots.

While we don't have a whole lot of time left here to raise any new hatchlings, this shouldn't be a problem with the potted plant. In fact, it's a great opportunity to catch up on the early stages that we missed last time and have a complete life history set before we leave and (probably) never see these again.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Papilio polyxenes asterius L5 Rearing Notes (7/24/17-7/28/17)

7/28/2017

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Rearing notes for black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius) fifth instar larvae obtained from a hand-pairing between butterflies that eclosed from pupae originating from Cleveland, Ohio.

Rearing notes 7/24/17-7/28/17:

7/28:

Shockingly, one of the larva has already purged today and is only 1.0 g; the others are still hovering at around 1.5 g and also look somewhat close to full grown; perhaps the incubation effected them negatively (because their parents were about P. zelicaon size)?

7/27:

As the larvae get larger, the still maintain a smoother, more elongated body shape than P. zelicaon and have much thicker thoraxes; the spots are starting to break the bands in some areas, but are still distinctly rounder and smaller
The green coloration is very dark and evenly mixed which is uncommon in P. zelicaon which usually have bluish bands in between
Interestingly, larvae are consistently very active and seemingly restless when put on live plant in open sun unlike P. zelicaon and the hybrid larvae which quickly become comfortable

7/26:

The larvae have growing quickly at a rate that seems quicker than the P. zelicaon we are rearing side by side; as they grow larger, the spots are starting to break the bands slightly, but not quite in the same way as P. zelicaon because they are circular
When disturbed too much, larvae still prone to regurgitating which we basically never see in P. zelicaon

7/25:

The larvae are growing steadily, looking more and more like tiger larvae in shape
Out of curiosity, we decided to give them a flower stock to see if they will eat it; so far they have not eaten any, but perhaps by tomorrow

7/24:

The newly molted fifth instars are distinctly different than Papilio zelicaon; they have much smaller spots that do not break the black bands (which are surprisingly thick) anywhere along the abdomen; the shape of the abdomen is also much slimmer and smoother (segments do not bulge out at all), giving them a much more tapered look typical of tigers

Authors
Brian Liang

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Papilio polyxenes, zelicaon, & ♀ polyxenes asterius × ♂ zelicaon Fifth Instar Comparison

7/28/2017

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Here we compare the fifth instar larvae of the black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius), anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) and a ♀ Papilio polyxenes asterius × ♂ Papilio zelicaon hybrid cross.

This will probably the last post with all three types of larvae together, seeing as they are almost done growing and it's getting a bit redundant.

As the larvae grew larger, the differences started to become a little less obvious, especially between the hybrid and Papilio zelicaon. The hybrid does still has slightly smaller and rounder color spots, though. The pure P. polyxenes asterius still maintains a very distinctive look with the very small and circular color spots, even though they do actually break the black bands a bit now. In terms of shape, the hybrid larvae is noticeably shorter and thicker, as if it inherited the bulky body of P. zelicaon and the fat thorax of P. polyxenes asterius. The hybrid larvae are also moderately variable in color form (strip thickness, color of the spots, shade of green, etc.) , unlike the P. polyxenes which pretty much all look identical.

Both the P. zelicaon and the hybrid larvae are fond of flowers (seemingly prefer them over the leaves) and are comfortable sitting in the open sun. The P. polyxenes asterius only occasionally nibble at the flowers and appear to be indifferent towards them. The P. polyxenes asterius is also the only one that consistently regurgitates when violently handled. Interestingly, the hybrids seem to use their horns more frequently than either species.

Authors
Brian Liang

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