Common Buckeye Ovipositing Failure

After two days, the Common Buckeyes (Junonia coenia) that we caught at Tilden Regional Park (Berkeley, CA) have failed to oviposit in captivity.

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Two days ago on 7/10, we caught a whole bunch of Common Buckeye butterflies (Junonia coenia) and we were barely even trying since they are so abundant and easy to catch with our new net. We caught five of them to be exact. But as we went over in our previous post, they seem virtually impossible to sex accurately with the small genitals but it did appear that we had a single female out of the five. 

For the past two days, we have been putting all five of them (just in case) in the ovipositing enclosure we set up (also described in the previous post) and setting it by the window when the sun is out. Like expected, there would be a ton of activity in the enclosure once the sun hit them with full force and warmed them up. They would flap about crazily and were certainly making contact with the plantain leaves (Plantago) we put in such that, if there was a female, it would have definitely been stimulated to lay eggs. But it didn't. We don't know why it didn't work, but we eventually let all five of the beat up looking butterflies go today since there didn't seem like much hop. We have gotten Gulf Fritillaries (Augraulis vanillae), another brush-footed butterfly (Nymphalidae) to lay eggs in captivity with no problem at all. And butterfly farms do it all the time with smaller species, including Buckeyes. Perhaps the host plant was just not good enough or we really didn't have a female in there, but it was a clear disappointment because we have never once seen a Buckeye egg or caterpillar in real life. Maybe we will try again next time.

- Brian