Rearing notes 9/27/16-9/30/16:

- Brian

- Brian

​The second installment of rearing notes for wild caught Common Checkered Skippers (Pyrgus communis) that we found as eggs or caterpillars on wild, introduced mallow (Malva).

- Brian

Rearing Notes 9/24/16-9/28/16:

- Alan

Today we realized we have a fifth instar Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) caterpillar mixed in with out fifth instar West Coast Ladies (Vanessa annabella)!

Yesterday, while we were cleaning out the petri dishes that we our West Coast Lady (Vanessa annabella) caterpillars in, we took note of which ones were in apolysis as always and took care not to disturb them. We had quite a few -- maybe five or so -- fourth instar individuals in apolysis for fith instar. We noticed then, that one of them seemed much larger than the others, larger than perhaps a young fifth instar. At the time, it never once crossed our mind that it might be a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) caterpillar, which are normally significantly larger than V. annabella but today we found out!

The fourth instar in apolysis looks more or less identical to the V. annabella fourth instars, so it was no wonder that we didn't realize earlier. Even among different V. annabella caterpillars before the fifth instar, there is very little variation (there is incredible diversity in coloration in the fifth instar， though); every single caterpillar we had looked pretty much identical. We don't know exactly when the V. cardui caterpillar molted, but it must have been a while since we checked this evening because we almost jumped back when we opened our petri dish and saw a monstrous caterpillar towering over even the largest of mature V. annabella fifth instars. Besides the ungodly size, its appearance was now distinctly different than any V. annabella caterpillar. Its body much longer and less fat compared to V. annabella, more like a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta). In addition, its coloration actually is very similar to that of a typical black morph V. atalanta that we have never witnessed in any V. annabella; the base is completely black with not red or yellow striped down the back seen in all of our V. annabella, the spiracles are outlined in yellow, and the feet are reddish. At the same time, it also doesn't look quite the same as V. atalanta. See images below.

The strange part about finding this V. cardui caterpillar is that mallow (Malva) is not a particularly popular host plant. While V. cardui is probably one of the only butterflies in our area that are truly polyphagous, capable of feeding on low plants from a huge number of unrelated botanical families, it still seems unlikely that they would utilize mallow unless there is a population spike and food sources are in high demand, but V. cardui is certainly is not very common in our particular region at this particular time. A regional preferences for host plants is plausible but unlikely -- why would they compete with the abundant V. annabella which exclusively feeds on mallow? If anything, we would assume that V. cardui would more commonly utilize the milk thistles growing here but to this date we have never found one on this particular host plant in Albany. 

- Brian

Rearing Notes 9/21/16-9/28/16:

- Alan

Rearing Notes 9/15/16-9/27/16:

- Alan

Our oldest Achemon Sphinx caterpillars (Eumorpha achemon) have ecdysed into fourth instar.

Yesterday, a few of our Achemons entered apolysis and we weren't sure if they were going to ecdyse today or tomorrow, but a few of them did it this evening. There are a few changes in the fourth isntar, most noticeably the body patterns. The white notched spots on each abdominal segment on the lateral sides are very clear and defined now, and there are many small whites spots all over the body, being more numerous and larger on the thorax. These patterns make the caterpillars more textured and attractive, with the white spots giving the body more definition in our opinion. Another change is the body color -- this is the instar in which color variants ranging from green, orange, red, brown, to grey begin appearing.  All four that ecdysed today are in the orange-brown range, each varying slightly in shade. Interestingly, they were completely green when teneral, and the color change came with the melanization afterwards. Almost all the other caterpillars are in apolysis and will ecdyse tomorrow, so we're hoping to see other color variants. A few other changes in the fourth instar are that the thorax is now very thick and will likely become thicker as the caterpillars grow, and the horn, though still quite long, is shorter in relation to the body, and the button like dot at the base is larger and silver in color. 

These fourth instars spent just 5 days in the third instar from 9/22-9/25 and have already caught up with the Opthalm Sphinx caterpillar which also ecdysed into fourth instar today. The Achemons spent just 4 days in second instar from 9/18-9/22 and 6 days in first instar from 9/12-9/18, making it the fastest growing Sphingid relative to its size that we have reared so far. 

- Alan

Rearing Notes 9/24/16-9/26/16:

- Alan

Rearing Notes 9/18/16-9/26/16:

- Alan