Category: Nymphalis_antiopa

Nymphalis antiopa Pupae Rearing Notes (7/23/17-7/??/17)

7/25/2017

Rearing notes for mourning cloaks (Nymphalis antiopa). Originated from an egg cluster collected on willow (Salix) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California), June 29, 2017.

Rearing notes 7/23/17-7/??/17:

7/25:

They are now pupating in huge masses but many of them are getting minor injuries, apparently as a result of each others' spikes; fortunately, they seem to be very tough and not prone to being deformed; the blood clots very quickly and the pupae seem completely fine
When disturbed, the newly molted pupae wriggle and turn violently like Vanessa pupae, which can be frightening

7/24:

The prepupal larvae are ridiculous how they insist on clumping together with their siblings in enormous masses of dangling, wriggling J's; there is a huge group on the lid of the tank and groups on three willow cuttings, hanging like ornaments; the very appearance is scary enough, so perhaps that is their strategy. . .
The prepupae from yesterday have pupated already, fast as always, and are quite large; these nymphalids don't shrink nearly as much as other groups and don't empty their guts so these pupae are still about 0.8 g (down from 1.3 g max larval weight); they look very similar to Vanessa pupae but have much larger and sharper spikes and are basically completely uniform in color

7/23:

Although there was still massive amounts of eating going on through the night and earlier this morning, by the afternoon at least half of the larvae were marching everywhere at lightning speed to try to find a place to pupate; five of them had already formed J's on some of the eaten cuttings buried in the tub, which is not a very safe location, so we moved all of the larvae into a tank with sticks instead
Inside the tank, the wandering larvae seemed to clump together in large groups as the wandered and, based on their behavior, it seemed like they were going to pupate together in an organized fashion; this suggests that they would still be gregarious all the way through in the wild and that more than a few survive from a clutch

Authors
Brian Liang

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Nymphalis antiopa L5 Rearing Notes (7/17/17-7/23/17)

7/23/2017

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Rearing notes for mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) fifth instar larvae. Originated from an egg cluster collected on willow (Salix) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California), June 29, 2017.

Rearing notes 7/17/17-7/23/17:

7/23:

The larvae are now at 1.3 g and have slowed down significantly; by the afternoon it was quite apparent that most of them had already stopped eating

7/22:

The larvae a now at about 1.2 g
They no longer make a lot of silk

7/21:

The larvae are still growing steadily and eating absurd amounts of willow; some of the largest are already at 1.1 g

7/20:

The larvae are really getting huge now, but only weigh about 0.8 g; perhaps they actually still have a bit more to grow
It seems that a possible reason why the spikes can pierce skin and leave a stinging feeling is that they are pumping fluids into them to tense them up and harden them (they are normally soft and don't seem capable of piercing skin)

7/19:

Typical of nymphalids, the larvae are eating an insane amount and growing at an absurd rate even though it isn't that hot; going at this rate, they will probably pupate within two days; they still do not eat the veins of the leaves

7/18:

The larvae are not nearly as social as they were before, foraging and feeding independently for the most part; however, they still clearly recognize and acknowledge each other (they tend not to fight like other species that are overcrowded)
They no longer make a large nest on the cuttings; rather, they lay only enough silk for them to walk on

7/17:

It's shocking how little time these take to molt; they only entered apolysis last night and already began to molt sometime mid-morning
The newly molted fifth instars must inflate their huge spikes; it seems to require a lot of effort to do so because the larvae twitch and shiver before "squeezing" the spike out, presumably by increasing the blood pressure at that location; the spikes can pierce skin if touched at the right angle
The fifth instar larvae are much hairier than before, especially on the head capsule, and have tons of white speckles; the red along the back has become very dark and has been reduced to a spot at each segment rather than a connected stripe

Authors
Brian Liang

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Nymphalis antiopa L4 Rearing Notes (7/14/17-7/16/17)

7/16/2017

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Rearing notes for mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) L4 larvae. Originated from an egg cluster collected on willow (Salix) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California), June 29, 2017.

Rearing notes 7/14/17-7/16/17:

7/16:

The larvae are getting so big that they only crawl on the stems of the willow cuttings
A few deaths are occurring here and there these days, probably because it is getting so overcrowded
By night time they had clumped together on the stems to molt; they measure about 23 mm

7/15:

As their skin stretches, the red portions are starting to become more obvious as in the previous instars, but unlike last instar, the red is made up of patches on each segment and is not one long connected stripe
The larvae still feed gregariously but are starting to become slightly more independent when they are foraging for food and are occasionally seen feeding by themselves

7/14:

The larvae have molted to fourth instar and are much hairier; the colors have darkened from gray to black and orange to red; the clasper is more developed, making the shape of the body more rectangular

Authors
Brian Liang

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Nymphalis antiopa L3 Rearing Notes (7/9/17-7/13/17)

7/13/2017

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Rearing notes for mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) L3 larvae. Originated from an egg cluster collected on willow (Salix) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California), June 29, 2017.

Rearing notes 7/9/17-7/13/17:

7/13:

The larvae have now clumped together into two very tight groups, as they always do in preparation to molt; they measure 16 mm

7/12:

We have moved the larvae into a larger container since they are taking up so much space; they seem to have a hard time feeding all at once even when there are lots of leaves because they always clump together and follow each other (despite how mobile their legs are, they struggle to move around because they must do it as a group)
The larvae are now fairly plump and very colorful; they will probably molt again soon

7/11:

The larvae are eating an insane amount now and are growing fast. . . they seem to be diverging slightly in size now, with a few more stragglers laying dead at the bottom
As their skin stretches, their patterns become more clear; they have yellow feet and orange backs with various black veins and white speckles going through it, giving them a typical nymphalid larvae look

7/10:

Most all of them have molted to third instar and still almost zero mortality except for a few weak stragglers
The collective increase in volume of the aggregated larvae after molting is huge, so they have broken into several smaller groups

7/9:

A few of the larvae have molted to third instar; basically all of the rest are in apolysis, so they are very good at growing in sync (at least for now. . .)
The newly molted third instars look drastically different then before and have a much more characteristic overall look to them; the body has become black with a red stripe along the top, they are now covered more densely in hair, and the head capsule is appears more developed in structure and shape

Authors
Brian Liang

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Nymphalis antiopa L2 Rearing Notes (7/5/17-7/8/17)

7/8/2017

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Rearing notes for mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) L2 larvae. Originated from an egg cluster collected on willow (Salix) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California), June 29, 2017.

Rearing notes 7/5/17-7/8/17:

7/8:

The larvae are getting plump and are starting to develop are more distinct pattern; they are now lined in stripes and the sides are greyish
A few have entered apolysis for third instar; 8 mm in length

7/7:

They are now eating a lot more than before, leaving behind silk and frass that, amusingly, are in the shape of the leave that used to be underneath

7/6:

Now that just about all of them have molted to second instar and have dried, it is quite clear that they are now covered in very thin, white hairs; the skin also looks a bit baggier instead of hard and shiny, but this may be because it is the beginning of the instar
The larvae continue to develop their leaf nest and aggregate in one large group instead of several small ones; they are very active and mobile and are always waving their heads around and squirming
They are now capable of biting through the leaf

7/5:

Some of the larvae are now in second instar
The newly molted second instar has a much larger (proportionally, too), yellow head capsule that tans to black; the body now seems to be slightly darker and hairier with distinct stripes running across them

Authors
Brian Liang

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Nymphalis antiopa L1 Rearing Notes (7/1/17-7/5/17)

7/5/2017

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Rearing notes for mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) L1 larvae. Originated from an egg cluster collected on willow (Salix) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California), June 29, 2017.

Rearing notes 7/1/17-7/5/17:

7/5:

The larvae group together in a very compact clump on their nest when they are ready to molt; tehy measure about 3.5 mm
By the end of the day (bottom row photos), several had already molted to second instar

7/4:

With each day it seems that the larvae add to the silken nest that they live in as they grow, making the larger and thicker; all of the larvae now seem to be in the nest and not floating around in random groups
The larvae are starting to get faint stripes on the body

7/3:

The larvae are now starting to form larger aggregations by making silk nests and feeding together, although they still have a habit of clumping on top of each other
The bodies are becoming very smooth and tight looking such that the skin looks like it could be tough; they are probably going to molt soon

7/2:

The larvae have clearly grown and are longer and plumper then before
Organization seems to have improved in some of the aggregations, but overall still messy
They continue to feed in a wasteful and destructive fashion, going through every leaf but not actually eating any portion of them (no wonder they can be considered forest pests!)

7/1:

The newborn larvae do not aggregate in an organized manner as in other gregarious species we have reared and instead clump together messily; they are constantly moving around and have broken up into several smaller groups
The larvae have initiated feeding on the willow leaves (Salix) by scraping at the outer tissues of the leaves, leaving behind characteristic brown patches; this style of leaf scraping is actually very similar to other nymphalids we have reared (Danaus plexippus, Vanessa, Augraulis)
Larvae measure about 2 mm at birth

Authors
Brian Liang

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Mourning Cloak Eggs Hatch

7/1/2017

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Our mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) eggs, found on a willow (Salix) tree along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California), have hatched.

This morning we found about half of the egg cluster had already hatched. The newborn larvae have that typical nymphalid look with the dark colored heads and smooth, long and tube-like, yellow colored body. Surprisingly, they didn't seem quite as well organized as some other gregarious species we have reared despite the fact that there are so many of them together. The larvae more or less just swarmed around the willow leaf in clumps but not lining up together or forming any kind of organized group.

The eggs continued to hatch consistently over the day. At some point, we put in a fresh cutting of willow (Salix). It seemed that the there were simply too many larvae to feed together in one spot so they broke into smaller groups. Many of the older larvae crawled onto the new cutting, swarming the stem near the tip of the cutting where the new growth was. Most of them began feeding shortly, very messily.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Nymphalis antiopa Egg Rearing Notes (6/29/17-6/30/16)

6/30/2017

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Rearing notes for a mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) egg cluster found on willow (Salix) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California).

Rearing notes 6/29/17-6/30/17:

6/30:

The eggs got noticeably darker throughout the day, although not all eggs were developing at the same rate; by evening, most of the shells had become clear

6/29:

See Found a Mourning Cloak Egg Cluster

Authors
Brian Liang

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Found a Mourning Cloak Egg Cluster

6/29/2017

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Today we found a cluster of mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) eggs laid on an isolated willow tree (Salix) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (Berkeley, California).

Considering that we basically never see the adult of the mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) in all our years, it was quite a surprise that of all things, it is their eggs that we found on an isolated willow tree (Salix) growing at the end of the block of the Ohlone Greenway Trail in Berkeley California. To this day, more or less our only accounts of the butterfly have occurred at Albany Hill and they were all very old and worn males. Because these nymphalids have such a long lifespan, we sort of assumed that the very few we actually saw around were strays that may have occasionally breed on the willow trees but didn't have a strongly established population in our area. In fact, we still don't know even after finding the egg cluster.

The egg cluster we found was located a few feet off the ground, about halfway up a medium sized willow (a variety that we have never encountered before and may or may not be native) that, strangely, was located in shade underneath BART tracks. The tree itself, however, was quite excellent. Also a bit odd was that the eggs were laid on the underside of a leaf rather than around a stem, which is a much more frequently reported laying site of antiopa.

By the time we had found the eggs, it was quite clear that they were already close to hatching. The eggs were mostly all a dark shade of red; they are supposedly a pale yellow when first laid based on internet pictures. For some reason though, they didn't seem uniform in their stage of development with a few strips along the edges still looking orange rather than red and one of the eggs was empty. Either something ate it or the butterfly somehow laid this by itself. In any case, we hope that the eggs are not parasitized since this kind of thing tends to happen in the eggs of Nymphalidae.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Collecting at Albany Hill 4/10/17

4/10/2017

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Collecting at Albany Hill (Albany, California) 4/10/17.

After our trip to Canyon trail Park, we decided to take a visit to Albany Hill to see if we could have some luck with the western tiger swallowtails (Papilio rutulus) there. Albany Hill is hands down the best rutulus habitat we seen around here - there is a nice long creek at the bottom of the hill (Cerrito Creek), surrounded with lush green willow trees, a popular host plant. When you get on the hill itself, there is a trail along the creek that is in full sunshine, and it is here that the rutulus love to fly. Last summer we caught several as they flew up and down the path and in the tree tops.

Below are pictures of the rutulus habitat (Albany Hill).

To make things better, it turned out this habitat isn't just great for one swallowtail, but two - we discovered a huge, vigorous patch of passion vines growing along the creek great for attracting Battus philenor hirsuta. Unfortunately, we didn't see any pipevine swallowtails flying around nor were there any eggs or caterpillars.

Anyway, as we hiked up the trail, we immediately saw yellow figures soaring through the air - the rutulus were already up and about during this time of year as we suspected. We went ahead and began chasing after them for the next hour or two and we managed to get two very fresh looking males. One was larger but paler in color (the individual in the top row of photos below), and the other was smaller but darker (the individual in the left and middle photos on the bottom row). There were definitely a few more that we weren't able to catch, such as the individual in the bottom right photo below.

When we were close to heading home, we spotted another rutulus up in the tree tops and we went to get a closer look. It turned out it was nectaring on flowers of the tree, which we believe was locust (Robinia sp). It never came down for us to have a chance at catching it, but we managed to get some pretty good shots, though none very close up.

While hunting the rutulus, we came across a few other butterflies as well, such as this mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa). It was a male and pretty bad in shape - the wings were all torn up on the edges and it had a lot of scratches. We caught one of these last summer as well the same day we caught three rutulus, so it looks like rutulus and antiopa are a typical catches at Albany Hill.

We also saw this monarch flying around the entrance of the path but we couldn't catch it. They are a pretty common sight at Albany Hill as well.

Like Canyon Trail Park, of the other insects that were at at Albany Hill, damselflies and dragonflies were the most abundant by far. They were everywhere you looked - on the ground, in the sky, and in the grass. Just a careless sweep of the net in a random direction and there would be a few in there. some other insects we saw were these two mating flies perched on a grass blade that we saw right as we were heading back.

Since we couldn't really get any good open-winged dorsal shots of the rutulus on the actual trip, we posed one at home just so you can see all the nice patterns.

Authors
Alan Liang

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