Today we had two anise swallowtails (Papilio zelicaon) eclose from presumably diapausing chrysalises. This year in particular, we have been noticing a lot of bizarre occurrences in nature that have been hinting at a prolonged fall and a very early spring. Not only are annual flowers blooming and deciduous trees losing their leaves and inflorescing simultaneously, but a number of our lepidopteran pets have been going through some off-sync life cycles such as our anise swallowtails (Papilio zelicaon) eclosing haphazardly throughout the winter like it is spring time. While it is likely that indoor conditions probably had something to do with these disturbing occurrences, in previous years we have not had the same problem keeping diapausing anise chrysalises indoors. Just today we had two individuals, one male and one female, eclose from what appeared to be diapausing chrysalises right in the dead of winter. What a terrible mistake this seems! Where we live, this time of year has some of the lowest average temperatures and obviously, the shortest photoperiod. The male is shown below. Yes, we have made several other posts already discussing this so this is not really any new news. But while some of the other anise swallowtails that we have seen eclosing from diapausing chrysalises in October and November were sort of ambigous, both in their reason for eclosing and in their appearance, these seem like they really thought it was spring time. For one, the previous individuals came from diapausing chrysalises that went into diapausing in the summer for absolutely no reason other than their genetics (presumably); the two that eclosed today came from diapausing chrysalises of an actual last and fall brood that pupated in October (even at low temperatures, they should not take two months to eclose normally so we assume that they were diapausing at some point). Even more interesting is that the two that emerged today is that they actually look distinctly spring-like. By that, we mean that they have typical spring time anise swallowtail characterstics, certain features that ocurr almost exclusively in the first spring brood eclosing from diapausing chrysalises of the previous year(s). Below we compare the male (left) to a mid-June male from this year. A few things are evident that cue us in here. The spring indivuals are typically smaller and much paler in color. While we don't have exact wingspan data, we did notice (in person of course) that the shade of the left on to be particularly pale which is consistent with the photos. Lighting can have an effect on the shade of the yellow but this is the best that we can do. Next is the amount of blue and black on the borders of the wings. Summer males typically have very little blue such as the one in the picture on the right while spring males usually have a lot like the one on the left. Summer individuals (both males and females) tend to have a lot more black on the borders as well compared to spring individuals which is also apparent in the photos. While it is unclear what exactly causes these differences, these little things were quite interesting for us to take note of. - Brian
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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 |