Rearing Notes 5/18/17-5/??/17:

Rearing Notes 5/5/17-5/12/17:

See ​Hyles lineata Eclose

Our white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata) pupae are beginning to eclose. Stock originated from Oregon as eggs, October 2016.

Last night, many of our lineata pupa had become pharate and thus we knew they would begin eclose today. Checking around noon, the first one had already emerged and was female. Some time in the evening, another one eclosed as well - another female, but this was one was small and slightly crippled due to deformities in the way the pupa had hardened back when it pupated. 

The little moths are spectacular and are unlike all the other moths we have reared so far. The biggest difference is the presence of a long coiled proboscis which is just a small vestige in all Saturniidae and Smerinthinae moths we have reared. The moth is also extremely sleek, with a firm, pointy cone-shaped abdomen and narrow triangular wings. The eyes are large and translucent, with distinct dark pupils. The antennae taper towards the base, more like a butterfly's rather than a moths, but are not clubbed. 

The color is rather plane, being a dull tannish grey, though the patterns are stunning. White line markings are present on the fore-wings and the hind-wings are pick, though they cannot be seen unless the moth is in flight. ​The ventral side is patternless. 

The moth is extremely active, flying rapidly if disturbed too much and wriggles vigorously if picked up, usually escaping our grip unless we hold very firmly. It is one of strongest flyers we have seen, beating its wings at an incredibly fast rate. 

​Authors
Alan Liang

Our white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata) pupa are finally showing visible development and are near eclosion.

It;s been over a month since taking Hyles lineata pupa out of cold storage (3/21/17) and we had thought surely such a small species would be quick to eclose. Well, now the pupa finally are, as several of them are now showing visual signs of development, acquiring wing and body patterns. The wings now have white striped patterns and the abdomen now has rows of spots. The entire pupa in general has become a shade darker and feels loose and soft. The pupa have also become extremely sensitive and active, wriggling vigorously when disturbed. We expect these to eclose in a few days and will try to get some pairings and eggs out of them.

We took our diapausing polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) cocoons and achemon sphinx (Eumorpha achemon) and white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata) pupae out of cold storage.

We were initially planning on staggering the times we took all of our species out of cold storage (which we did with the first few), but after we thought about it for awhile we just decided to go ahead and take the remaining species out except Samia cynthia cocoons. Simply put, we'll be leaving for college by August this summer which means we have almost no time to loose if we plan on rearing all of these, plus any new species we get this year. Most host plants look almost ready anyway despite being just March. It'll probably take two months for the pupae to eclose, the moths to pair and lay eggs, and the eggs to hatch. Then it'll be another two months for all the larvae to mature and pupate. So, that's four months for each species meaning if we want them in the pupal stage by August, so now's just about the right time to take them out. We can't afford to wait another month or two. However, we'll hold off on the cynthias for a little longer since those usually grow much faster than a large species like polyphemus. 

It's a little late to begin doing so, but we finally got around to overwintering our diapausing pupae in the refrigerator at 40 F (4-5 C). The species we were sure would need this overwintering treatment were cecropia (Hyalophora cecropia), polyphemus (Antheraea polyphemus), imperial (Eacles imperialis), modest sphinx (Pachysphinx modesta), achemon sphinx (Eumorpha achemon), and white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata) since the stocks orginated from regions with very cold winters. The only diapausing Saturniid/Sphingid pupa we didn't put in the fridge was Smerinthus ophthalmica since it was  obtained locally and it does not even get close to 40 F here.

​To overwinter the pupae of the six mentioned species, we simply dumped them all in various airtight contaners lined with paper towels with a drop of water. Dissapointingly, when we weighed the cecropia cocoons just to see if any had died since the time that they spun in July and August, we discovered two had lost a significant amount of mass and were therefore likely dead. All the other pupae/cocoons of the other species seemed alive. We will probably take them out of the fridge once the trees start growing leaves again (March or April 2017) and will check on them every few weeks just to make sure no mold forms. 

- Alan

Rearing Notes 10/19/16-11/5/16:

​10/21:

- Alan

Rearing notes for our sixth instar White-lined Sphinx caterpillars (Hyles lineata). These were obtained from an Oregon breeder and reared indoors on grape (Vitis).

Rearing Notes 10/6/16-10/18/16:

- Alan

Rearing Notes 10/3/16-10/5/16:

- Alan

Rearing Notes 9/27/16-10/2/16:

- Alan