Our second western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) female has eclosed, this time successfully. Originated as eggs collected on willow (Salix) in Albany, California, Spring 2017. The entire day yesterday we were anxious for this second western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) pupa to eclose, especially after seeing the first one fail. Today at mid-morning, it finally did eclose. Although we didn't see it happening, it must have been just fine because when we found it it had already expanded and dried its wings and was crawling around at the top of the container. Thankfully. No messy meconium on the abdomen this time; it somehow must of timed it just correctly and completely soaked the pupal shell in the red stuff without getting a trace of it on its actual body. The abdomen is also incredibly plump and firm which is, of course, good. Even though this came from the smaller of the two pupa, probably by a significant margin (at least 0.2-3 grams based on its prepupal weight), it still looks enormous in terms of wingspan. It's larger than any anise (Papilio zelicaon) we have ever seen or any male rutulus that we have ever captured. Even the humongous 4.5 inch male rutulus that we caught last week can't compare with the overall wing area of this female. This is because there is a noticeable difference in the shape and size of the hindwings in proportion to the rest of the body between the two sexes. Males end up looking very triangular not matter how large they are whereas females, such as this one, look much more boxy and more like eastern tigers (Papilio glaucus). Other obvious differences between the males and females are the amount of blue lining the edges of the wings and the little red pieces at the anal portion of the hindwings that are absent in males. Compared to the basically all black and yellow male that we caught yesterday for hand-pairing, this female is just spectacular with its bright colors and size. For today, we continued to feed the wild male and let the female rest. We don't want to rush things too quickly. There probably wouldn't be any benefit in pairing so hastily anyway since the female probably won't start laying immediately even if we did pair them. Tomorrow, if we can we will try to catch more males to see if we can get any larger, plumper ones to do the job but otherwise we will just use the male we have right now for hand-pairing. After that, we will really need to figure out a proper setup and hope that this terrible sub-70's weather improves a little bit in the coming week. . . ![]() Authors Brian Liang
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 |