Recently we have been taking note of a series of odd ecological occurrences hinting that nature has been tricked into an second or early spring. Starting all the way back in October, we first noticed that some of our anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) chrysalises weren't diapausing. However, the weather was still warm and the highly multivoltine species is known to fly quite late in our region, so this occurrence was still in the scope of what was normal. But, later we started noticing a few chrysalises that already had been diapausing start to eclose for no apparent reason. For example, three chrysalises that had been diapausing for at least a few months decided to come out around 10/13. Then, just recently on 11/10 we had three more males and two females eclose. And on top of that, a male pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor) from August decided to eclose as well. This is probably the worst time of year to possibly emerge! Since this year is an El Niño year, these past few weeks we have been having a lot of rain -- a lot more than what we've had in the last few years due to the drought we are having here in California. In addition, the temperature seems to be a bit above average, too. Either of these factors may be responsible for triggering these early eclosions, eclosions that would have normally ocurred in the spring. Then, we also started noticing some other freak occurrences with the plants. . . With the rain, plants in general were growing wildly, annuals were in bloom, and cherry trees were forming blossoms. In our own yard, our apple tree started flowering and our hibiscus tree began regenerating leaves while it was in the middle of dropping its old ones. Both, of course, are deciduous! And finally, today we almost jumped when we noticed that two of the three two-tailed swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata) chrysalises we had been keeping since August were almost pharate! We hadn't really been checking on these for a while, so this really caught us off guard. If we hadn't noticed the development today we probably would have left them to emerged crippled in the little tub we were keeping them in! There is no way that any of these strange occurrences should be happening. But with the longer summer weather we have been seeing in recent years due to what is probably climate change and with the El Niño this year, it isn't too hard to see why this is happening. Either the mild nature of our falls and winter is tricking our wildlife into thinking that we are either having a second spring or next year's spring has come early (and are completely forgetting that they haven't had a winter yet!). - Brian
Comments
|
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 |