Our Two-Tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata) chrysalises have arrived from an Arizona breeder. It is unfortunate that the majestic Two-Tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata), our largest butterfly (possibly the largest in all of North America in terms of both mass and wing span), is so incredibly rare in its Northern California range. Populations don't even exist in Albany, suburban or natural. Many enthusiasts can't even witness one personally in their entire life. So our solution? Well, we went ahead and got six of them from an Arizona breeder who presumably sourced them from the wild population as they are fairly common in parts of Arizona. Two of them emerged and perished in transit, one male who had been dead for at least a day and a female that must of emerged only today but was obviously not going to make it with such crippled wings. The other four were in great condition, shown below. For those who may have seen these before, this may sound inexperienced, but we almost jumped at the enormous size! Of course we knew they were big, but they are truly amazing (they look like logs!). They tower over our Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus) and of course our Western Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio rutulus), Anise Swallowtails (Papilio zelicaon), and Pipevine Swallowtails (Battus philenor hirsuta) which we also have on hand right now; they are the larger than any other glaucus group swallowtail, even the huge Appalachian Swallowtail (Papilio appalachiensis). After weighing, the largest of the four came up as 2.9 grams, which is at least twice as big as any of the other species and probably three times as smaller individuals. 2.9 grams is respectable even among moths which can get much heavier than butterflies and we're sure that this probably isn't even close to a record-breaking weight. Putting our Eastern Tigers next to them is certainly embarrassing (bottom right)! Onto a more serious observation, we believe three are female and only one is male. Already one of the females is slightly soft with slightly departed abdominal segments and will likely eclose within a few days. In order to hand-pair them though, we are counting completely on the single male which still shows no sign of eclosing soon. We will need him to eclose sometime near at least one of the three females. If we get past this first step, which is completely based on luck at this point, the second step is to hand-pair. This shouldn't be terribly difficult considering that they must have massive genitalia (ha-ha). Step three will be finding a suitable host plant to elicit ovipositing of the gravid female, preferably hop (Ptelea) or ash (Fraxinus), but we have yet to discover either growing in our area so we will probably have to resort to a nursery. The last step -- setting up a proper enclosure and getting the female to actually lay -- is considerably difficult; we're not even sure if we have done it correctly for our gravid Eastern Tiger females right now (they have not laid a thing yet). Failing at any of these four steps will stop us in our hopes of ever obtaining a whole lot of big (6 grams?) green snakes (caterpillars)! - 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 |