Smerinthus ophthalmica Female Ecloses

Our diapausing female Smerinthus ophthalmica pupa eclosed today.

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Well, it looks like our suspicions were correct when we noticed the Smerinthus ophthalmica pupa had become loose and soft. At around noon, we checked the container and found a impressive sized grey-from female clinging to the lid. It's forewing length is about 4.2 cm and it has a large, plump abdomen filled with eggs. The entire body color is different from it's mother we reared last summer which was a tan form; the current one is melanic, having grey in place of the tan and dark brown in place of the golden brown - so basically a whole step darker. The father was a grey form as well which seems to be the more common form in general; perhaps a tan father would have increased the chance of tan offspring. 

Anyways, we are not quite unsure what to do about this newly eclosed female ophthalmica, since the timing of this eclosion was completely unexpected. Ideally and more reasonably, we would have expected it to eclose a moth later, or maybe May when the wild population is in flight. A temperature increase was likely the culprit in causing this premature eclosion, as there was a slightly warmer week back in February when the rain took a break.  However, it is possible that this warmth also caused wild pupae to break diapause as well, but even still, wild pupae develop much slower than indoor kept pupae due to the cold night temperatures, so the wild population probably won't be in flight until at least April. Also, it doesn't help that it will be raining this entire week making calling in a male and pairing almost impossible, even if there are males out there at all. So, though it was always a long shot anyway, it doesn't look like we'll be able to continue this line of ophthalmicas unless by some miracle we actually get a pairing. We put it in a pairing cage anyway and placed it outside just to see what'll happen. If we loose this sock, the only way to reestablish it would be to capture some wild females or somehow by chance find eggs or larvae. 

Since this may be the last time we'll ever see this species in a while, we made sure to take plenty of photos to remember it. 

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Authors
Alan Liang

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