Our first F1 generation Indian Walking Sticks (Carausius morosus) ecdysed into an adult (seventh instar). It's seven month old mother is still alive, meaning we now have two bi-generational adults. Over the past few weeks, many of our Indian Walking Sticks began entering the sixth instar and it wouldn't be long until we had our first adult (seventh instar). We checked on the sticks everyday this week to see when it would happen, and today we found a freshly ecdysed adult. Its cuticle is smooth and bright green, with red on the fore femora (second segment of leg). Its body is long and slender, at approximately 3.2 inches, with long legs and a large, cup like ovipositar. The abdomen is very thin as it hasn't fed in days and hasn't began producing eggs yet. It spent 17 days in sixth instar from 9/27-10/14. Since it's seven month old mother is still alive (and still doing quite well), this means we now have two bi-generational adults which is extremely rare among insects due to their short lifespans (most don't even live until their eggs hatch, let alone until their children reach adulthood). The age difference is quite apparent between the two as seen in the photos. The mother's green has darkened and dulled overtime and her egg-bound abdomen is much thicker. Also the tibia are very worn from crawling and are brown in color. The daughter is also larger than the mother who is about 3 inches, perhaps due to feeding it bramble its entire life which seems to be the best host. We're not sure how much longer the mother will live, but her health seems to be declining, though perhaps from the recent overcrowding in the tub rather than from aging. The egg count was very low this time, and many of the eggs were quite small. Also, her eggs have recently stopped hatching (the ones labeled as new in the previous posts) so we suspect that they are diapausing. We also took the time to change out the raspberry cuttings and do a rough count up our stock. Soon we will have a lot of adults as there are a lot of sixth, fifth, and fourth instars now. Count: L7: 1 (F1), 1 (F0); L6: 20; L5: 18; L4: 23; L3: 8; L2: 23; L1: 46; hatched eggs: 171 (96 new, 75 old); total eggs (last counted 10/14): 580 (459 new, 121 old); avg 2.58 eggs/day from 10/2-10/14; dead/missing: 31. - Alan
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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)
August 2017 (49) July 2017 (121) June 2017 (79) May 2017 (77) April 2017 (91) March 2017 (35) February 2017 (12) January 2017 (10) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (26) October 2016 (49) September 2016 (84) August 2016 (94) July 2016 (99) June 2016 (53) May 2016 (21) April 2016 (4) January 2016 (1) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (3) June 2015 (2) June 2014 (3) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (3) March 2014 (3) December 2013 (2) November 2013 (2) October 2013 (5) September 2013 (11) August 2013 (15) July 2013 (9) June 2013 (5) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (2) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (5) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (1) 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 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 |