A Battus philenor hirsuta (California pipevine swallowtail) male eclosed today after diapause. Pipevine swallowtails have one of the strangest flight times among Californian butterflies. Being a member of the tropical Triodini tribe, everything about the species is just. . .well, tropical. Unlike temperate species that register temperature and photoperiod changes to time diapause and eclosion, tropical species typically register humidity changes instead. The pipevine swallowtail still seems to retain tropical traits from its ancestors despite being in a temperate climate, and thus its ecloses and enters diapause in a rather erratic fashion. In any given brood of this species, some members will eclose in a few weeks, others will enter diapause and eclose in a few months, and the remainder will diapause until the following spring. Thus, the chrysalises produced from the larvae we reared last summer eclosed randomly throughout the year. They finally stopped eclosing for the past few months, but recently we have begun spraying all our diapausing butterfly pupae which triggered this male and possibly others to break diapause and eclose. The timing of the eclosion is actually fairly accurate despite that the chrysalises were kept indoors, as the flight of the wild population should be beginning now. Maybe we'll go release this individual back in the mountains were it was found this weekend. Battus philenor hirsuta is sexually dimorphic, with the iridescent blue and green on the hindwings being a characteristic of the male. The females are mostly grey and only have the blue on the forewings. Pipevine swallowtails may not look as showy as some of the other yellow swallowtails, but when the light is shining on the wings at the right angle, they gleam and reveal their colors making them quite stunning. Update 3/18: well, here's another photo posed on a lilac blossom, a classic swallowtail nectar flower.
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
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![]() ![]() 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 Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |