Category: Brian

Last Visit to Albany Hill

8/16/2017

We went to Albany Hill in Albany, California for one last time before leaving for Ithaca, New York.

We have probably went to Albany Hill over a hundred times in just this year. Today was the last time. We took a bunch of photographs on the way, just to see how it will change by the next time we come back to Albany. A new segment has just been added to the Bay Trail this year with newly propagated willows (Salix) and alders (Alnus) along a man-made creek that mimics the rest of the trail perfectly. In a few year's time, we expect that it will grow in a lot.

The following are pictures of the two blocks of the trail that have always been here. Most of the trees are really declining as the season passes, but it is still rich with life.

At the end of the trail is Albany Hill. We did't see too much flying today, except for some skippers as detailed in here. We were not able to find any red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) larvae or eggs on the pellitory (Parietaria) even though the plants were getting clobbered in eggs all throughout the summer.

After exploring the outside of the hill, we crossed the creek to get inside. The pipevine here was in pretty bad shape, but there were still a one or two pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor hirsuta) larvae. A while ago we had come and found a least a dozen or two, so we suppose they either pupated or died.

Inside the hill, the scenery was a far step from when we first came in the Spring. The ground was covered in yellow hay and the trees were mature and dry. To our surprise, we saw a single western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) at some point. We took this as an opportunity to take a few pictures of ourselves one last time before we leave (as you may have noticed, the pictures of us have changed on this website).

Authors
Brian Liang

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Papilio rutulus Pupae Rearing Notes (8/9/17-8/16/17)

8/16/2017

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Rearing notes for western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) pupae. 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 8/9/17-8/16/17:

8/16:

Eight more pupated, many of which are large females, bringing our ratio to (after careful re-examination of the sexes of all of our pupa) 10 males and 11 females; the averages are at 1.12 and 1.38 respectively; there are still nine more that have not yet pupated that we will not see as we are leaving for Ithaca tonight
So far literally every single one is still a dark brown morph except for the first one that was sleeved outside

8/15:

Five more pupated, two males (1.01, 0.87) and three females (1.55, 1.38, 1.29)
The cold treatment seemed to do absolutely nothing; so far every single prepupae that has been kept in an indoor environment have uniformly turned into extremely dark brown (basically black) pupae whereas the ones that have been sleeved outside have become lighter morphs, often with green

8/14:

Two more pupated, one a very dark brown (almost black) morph like the one from yesterday and the other a lighter brown color; they weigh 1.10 and 1.03, respectively, and look to be both males
The first pupa has completely dried and is extremely white but, interestingly, without any green as we had previously assumed; it weighs 1.05, which is extremely small if it is indeed a female
Tons of them have become prepupae now; only 8 larvae remaining

8/13:

We put a prepupa into the incubator and it pupated into a dark brown morph; perhaps the heat makes them darker, but we will need to test the further; it weighs 1.09 g and appears to be male
Several more have become prepupae; we put some in a tub with and ice pack to see if cool temperatures and humidity will induce the green morph
A larva has hit 2.9 g, breaking the previous record of 2.8; a few others are in the 2.5-7 range, but most are still a bit less than that

8/12:

The first one has pupated and is a typical grey brown form with green speckles, basically identical to some of the ones in previous rearings; at this point it seems doubtful that a green form is even possible in P. rutulus (at least in our region); it appears to be a female
The larvae that are still feeding are mostly still in the lower 2.'s, with the largest one now at 2.8 g, which is quite good

8/11:

Three more have turned brown and are already down to the low 1.'s, which isn't too great
The larvae seem to purge twice, a clear watery liquid when they are still greenish and then the sloppy brown frass mess a little while after; after purging, it seems that they suck in air to become little larger in volume despite dramatic weight loss
Most of the larvae are between 2.0-2.5; hopefully one can push over to 2.8, the current record from previous rearings

8/10:

The prepupa from yesterday has already made its silk girdle; thankfully, it is on the plant and not the sleeve
Three more have become prepupae, none of which are particularly large; only one was one of the oldest four, again suggesting that they are fast-growing males
The largest larva (one of the two remaining oldest) has hit 2.6 g, which is decent; the others are mostly hovering around 2.0

8/9:

The first larvae has become brown and is a miniature 1.16 g (still will shrink quite a bit before pupation); this was quite unexpected since the larger ones of the same age are still eating; this is most likely a male
We put the larva sleeved around a citrus branch that is green to try to make it into a green morph

Authors
Brian Liang

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Pyrgus communis L4 Rearing Notes (8/13/17-8/16/17)

8/16/2017

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Rearing notes for a common checkerspot (Pyrgus communis) fourth larva originally found as an egg on wild mallow (Malva sp.) in Albany, California

Rearing notes 8/13/17-8/16/17:

8/16:

The larva has made a large nest on the side of the petri dish and has entered apolysis; unfortunately, we will never get to see it in the fifth instar

8/15:

The larva weighs 0.05 g
It is starting to become quite green

8/14:

The larvae is starting to get a shiny, fleshy look; the pulse is visible
It continues to build its leaf nest, now folding the entire thing together effectively into a shelter

8/13:

The larva has molted to fourth instar; the skin is noticeably thicker and hairier; the head capsule larger yet, blacker, and also quite hairy
The larva now makes well developed silken leaf nests that fold the leaf around it while it is at rest

Authors
Brian Liang

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Citheronia regalis Prepupae Rearing Notes (8/12/17-8/16/17)

8/15/2017

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Rearing notes for regal moth (Citheronia regalis) prepupae. Stock originated from Ohio, July 2017.

Rearing notes 8/12/17-8/16/17:

8/16:

The oldest prepupa ("broken horn") has dropped below 7 g, but is the smallest of all 16 pupae by quite a margin and is undoubtedly a male; unfortunately, we will never see them pupate
The last four larvae are still far behind, so be tossed three of them that were sickly (one had black spots all over it. . .)

8/15:

The prepupae have shrunk down to about 7 g
In a final attempt to get them to dig, we left a crawling prepupa on mud overnight but it still did not do anything before becoming completely immobile when we checked on it today

8/14:

The earliest prepupae have become immobile (but squirm violently when picked up); they most likely would have dug into the soil if we had allowed them more time before even if they don't react to it immediately like other species we have reared
The prepupae continue to shrink immensely and are already down to 8 g; at this rate, they will probably be a third of their peak larval size or less by the time they actually pupate

8/13:

The prepupae have already shrunk down a shocking degree to less than 10 g, probably over 50% of their original weight; visibly, they are also much smaller than before
The prepupae still don't respond to mud at all and, although their prolegs are largely nonfunctional, they continue to crawl around by wriggling; in the wild, they must crawl a very long distance from their host tree before finally settling down to burrow

8/12:

Six larvae have become prepupae; they are easily identifiable by the discoloration into a sickly blue color, the skinnier body shape, and the flaccid horns (retracting fluids?)
We put the larvae on some mud to see if they would dig, but it doesn't seem like they are ready yet; for now, we have left them in the incubator (without any special treatment) to try to speed up the process
The prepupae all happen to be in the 16's even though they look like they must have been different sizes before shrinking; the largest larvae still feeding is 21.6; several other larvae have also broken 20 g now

Authors
Brian Liang

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Papilio zelicaon Pupa Mass Data

8/12/2017

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We collected the mass data of our anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) pupae.

Now that most all of our anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) larvae have pupated, we have a lot of pupa mass data. We have a very large sample size that includes larvae of many different lineages, so it should be fairly representative of our region's population when fed on fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), which they almost always use in the wild already. The only concern was our accuracy in sexing the pupae. For some reason, anise pupae are particularly ambiguous compared to other swallowtails we have reared and because the pupae were weighed on the day of pupation, some of them still had not completely gotten into shape which could have made it hard. But even with an 80-90% accuracy, it was still quite clear that females are larger on average than males when you consider a whopping t = 90637 (df = 179; n = 181; p<0.0001) in a 2-sample t-test for the difference in means. A table summarizing our data is shown below.

Summary Statistics for Papilio zelicaon Pupa Mass
Mean Std Dev Median Min Max N
Male 0.9612903226 0.1132832714 1 0.7 1.2 93
Female 1.123863636 0.1259395204 1.1 0.9 1.5 88
All 1.040331492 0.1444449167 1 0.7 1.5 181

Although the difference in size between the two sexes was statistically significant, the difference isn't huge in real life, especially with the large standard deviations. Just eyeing them, the only ones that can be instantly sexed without looking at the genitalia are the massive females; even though there is only a 0.16 difference in means, the difference in maximums was 0.3. Disproportionately high female potential seems to be a common trend in the species we have reared.

What surprised us as we were collecting was how many of the pupae were exactly 1 gram, regardless of sex. For this kind of data, it would definitely have helped to use a more precise scale (perhaps to .001). This would have made the curve much smoother in the charts below and may have helped in showing the difference in size between the sexes. It is especially strange that so many of the females were 1 g, making it is hard to draw any conclusions from their distribution other than that we may have messed up. The male curve and the combined curve are both much more unimodal albeit sightly skewed.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Citheronia regalis L5 Rearing Notes (8/2/17-8/11/17)

8/11/2017

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Rearing notes for regal moth (Citheronia regalis) fifth instar larvae. Stock originated from Ohio, July 2017.

Rearing notes 8/2/17-8/11/17:

8/11:

The largest larvae is just under 22 g and 130 mm long; the rest are trailing behind at anywhere between 16-20 g

8/10:

The largest one has hit 20.5-ish, so still growing but at still a slower rate than before; the larvae look extremely shiny and tight, like they are just about done

8/9:

The larvae are now very fat and bulgy rather than just long and skinny
The largest larva is now at 19.36, a major slow down; most of the others are in the 16's still, so they have also slowed

8/8:

The larvae are still going strong, reaching 17.97 at by nighttime; most are still in the 15 g range or less, but compared to yesterday, they have still made some pretty massive gains

8/7:

Most larvae are between 11-13 g with largest at 15.02 and measuring 110 mm
We are spraying the larvae with water everyday which seems to make them feed more, perhaps because the water makes the leaves more appealing; they certainly also drink a lot of the water

8/6:

Many of the larvae are now exceeding 11 g with the largest at 12.2 and measuring 95 mm
They are truly a nice shade of green now, although they could get greener; the red parts have dulled down to orange

8/5:

Larvae are starting to get even greener, but still not quite completely there; they are gaining a lot of blue underneath each tubercle; most larvae are still yellowish so hopefully the blue will start to make them more green
The larvae cling on to the petioles by curling their freakishly long legs around it into a ring; they aren't actually relying on the stickiness of the crotchets
The largest larva is now just about 10 g

8/4:

The larvae are really starting to get greener, but it doesn't seem to be entirely from skin stretching. . . perhaps they are actively producing the pigments?
The largest larvae is up to 6.96 g; "broken horn" has gotten very behind despite being the oldest by at least a day

8/3:

To our great surprise, "broken horn" has started to become green!; however, it doesn't look like it will get very intense and the heavy black markings are here to stay; it is up to 4.8 g

8/2:

"Broken horn" has molted to fifth instar and looks basically identical to before except larger tubercles/horns that are no longer branched, darker coloration laterally, and redder coloration on the heavily schlerotinized areas; sadly, it is still a brown morph, perhaps caused by high humidity (80-90% in the incubator)
There is only one fourth instar that has a greenish undertone, but it will most likely be intermediate after it molts because fourth instars should already be able to be completely green
The largest recorded weight is 4.86; the larvae drop dramatically when they enter apolysis and molt; the newly molted fifth instar is only 0.36 (peak fourth instar weight was 0.46)

Authors
Brian Liang

Comments

P. zelicaon Rearing Notes (8/2/17-8/10/17)

8/10/2017

Comments

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

Rearing notes 8/2/17-7/10/17:

8/10:

A surprisingly high proportion of the eggs look to be fertile given the hasty and messy nature of mass hand-pairings. . .

8/7:

We put the females outside in a cage with a bit of fennel; the set up isn't very good because the fennel plant is too small for the large cage, but a decent amount of eggs were still laid (well, not a really considering there were over 20 females at work); there is a good chance that about 50% or more will be infertile, but we take what we can get. . .
For future reference: females completely refuse honey water with salt in it

8/6:

Made 16 pairings
Both the females and the males are extremely hungry after pairing; the females because they are starting to produce eggs and the males because they need to replenish their spermatophore
A female happened to come by so we caught it and caged it; it has already started to lay quite a bit

8/4:

Well. . . time for some more horrific pictures of our flock; 14 more emerged today, 4 males and 10 females this time; as for now, we do intend on attempting mass breeding eventually
The day of emergence and sometimes even the day after that, they refuse to feed

8/3:

Oh boy. . . it doesn't look like any of them are diapausing at all; 17 more emerged today and a heap of pupae look really close; the vast majority are males (17:4), which typically develop faster

8/2:

At first we thought that the heaps of pupae we got over the past few weeks may have a chance of diapausing because we used an opaque tub to rear the larvae in the last instar, but it seems we may be partially or entirely wrong. . . four eclosed today (2 males, 2 females)
The two females are completely different in appearance; one is dark yellow with little blue and long tales whereas the other is the opposite; the cell shapes and amount of black are also different

Authors
Brian Liang

Comments

Checkerspot Skipper and West Coast Lady at Albany Hill

8/10/2017

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On what is one of our last trips to Albany Hill (Albany, California), we found some checkerspot skipper (Pyrgus communis) eggs and adults and west coast lady (Vanessa annabella) eggs.

Fast and darty as always, it was hard to get close to this checkerspot skipper (Pyrgus communis) to take pictures of it. Unlike other skippers, we almost always only find them near mallow (Malva), which the larvae eat, or dry grassy areas in general where the plants grow. We have never seen them nectar at anything except for mallow flowers and the flowers of other small plants on the ground.

Although we see checkerspot skippers throughout the year, the only time we kind actually find a decent amount of their eggs is towards the end of summer. A few weeks ago we found one and today we found another with trying very hard. Of course, we have never known them to be very common around here, so it was still a nice find. We would have taken it home if we weren't leaving in a few days. We also found at least a dozen or two west coast lady (Vanessa annabella) eggs scattered around. It seems that the painted ladies (V. cardui) take the spring, red admirals (V. atalanta) take the summer, and these west coasts take the end of summer and fall.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Pyrgus communis L3 Rearing Notes (8/6/17-8/10/17)

8/10/2017

Comments

Rearing notes for a common checkerspot (Pyrgus communis) third larva originally found as an egg on wild mallow (Malva sp.) in Albany, California.

Rearing notes 8/6/17-8/10/17:

8/10:

The larva has entered apolysis and once again, the head capsule underneath is enormous

8/9:

The larva is now very plump and getting white
The mallow leaf is very juicy, so there is always a ton of water that condenses on the surface of leaf; so far, the larva doesn't seem to mind

8/8:

The larva's body shape is starting to get fatter in the middle (again, typical. . .)

8/7:

The larva's body looks plump and soft; pulse is now visible

8/6:

The larva has molted to third instar and has an even larger head capsule than before; the skin is less translucent and has some hair on it, making it really look much more like a typical skipper

Authors
Brian Liang

Comments

Papilio rutulus L5 Rearing Notes (8/1/17-8/9/17)

8/9/2017

Comments

Rearing notes for western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) fifth 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 8/1/17-8/9/17:

8/9:

The largest larva is now at 2.4 g; most are in the 2.0-1 range

8/8:

The larvae are mostly approaching 2 g now; the largest is 2.3
The fifth instar took 8-9 days in all of our previous rearings this year, so they will probably start purging tomorrow or the day after; 2.3 would be respectable for a male, but not for a female

8/7:

The larvae are starting to get a bit apart in their growth; most are in the 1.5 g range, but the oldest ones have already hit 2.1; perhaps in a day or two they will purge, depending on how big they are going to get

8/6:

The larvae are now at 1.8 g

8/5:

The larvae are already at 1.5 g and eating quite a lot now
Some of them have very distinct blue spots, which is something we have not seen in our previous rearings

8/4:

The larvae eat in huge bouts with long breaks in between where they crawl to the side of the container with a silk pad, essentially like "meals"; after each feeding period, their weight increases dramatically (a leaf weighs about 0.1-2 g) but right before the next one their weight probably drops a bit
The largest larva is at 1.2 g
Some of the larvae have slightly deformed eye spots for some reason, perhaps from minor injury or mismolt; the eyespot pattern and sizes are pretty much to only variation that we can see besides shade of colors

8/3:

The oldest four larvae have made a surprising comeback, completely stripping the cutting we gave them yesterday by noon; they weigh about 0.8 g now

8/2:

The larvae are eating a fair amount, but are making very slow progress; the ones that molted yesterday are still only 0.6 g (were 0.5 ish max fourth instar weight)

8/1:

The first four have molted to fifth instar and, somewhat surprisingly, not variable at all in appearance

Authors
Brian Liang

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