Keeping and breeding butterflies

Beautiful gift! Thank you for the answer, and then I have in the summer it somehow still turns out and then not always, but in the winter I try rarely, but still everything dies)

I will return to the question of the swallowtail pupa, pupated in September, you need to put it in the refrigerator. if so, should I hang it up after I get it, or should I just put it down?, Sincerely,

Helen0210, refrigerator temperature 2-3 gr. suitable? and will it not hurt the pupa if I remove it from the "Fasteners"in order to put it in the refrigerator? This is all I'm more interested in about the swallowtail. I never bothered with hawkmoth-they always lay at room temperature and were displayed perfectly-dead.heads, bedstraw, harpy pupa.

2-3 degrees will go, you can remove the fasteners - I carefully cut the silk thread with small scissors and put the pupa on the" back " on gauze or cotton wool.

Thanks for the reply. And if you do not put it in the refrigerator, but leave it at room temperature-what will happen?

Vasily and what other caterpillars did you collect in Penza and the region - if you are interested in insects and especially butterflies, come to my Ped. university to the Department of Zoology and Ecology. We always try to support young people.

I will return to the question of the swallowtail pupa, pupated in September, you need to put it in the refrigerator. if so, should I hang it up after I get it out, or should I just put it down?, With Respect,

- you don't need to put it in the refrigerator yet, maybe it will come out now.
- you don't have to hang it up.

Thank you very much! And how long to wait, I mean how to determine whether it's time to go to the refrigerator or not - I don't want to ruin it. Do not tell me the literature where you can learn more about diapause in gus / pupae!?

Cartman86, if the pupa is brown and almost does not move when touched, it overwinters. Wait a week - if it is completely hardened, browned and does not move, then put it in the refrigerator). In general, there are a lot of similar questions on the forum, it is about Swallowtails, you can use the search.

It is not brown, but gray-yellowish. The main question for everyone is: if the deforming pupa is not transferred to the cold,what will happen? The forum was rummaged through, I learned a lot of useful things for myself, but I didn't find answers to all my questions.Thank You

if the deforming pupa is not transferred to the cold-what will happen?

If you're lucky, the butterfly may come out right away, or it may not come out right away, or it may come out in winter.

But the essence is the same, it will still come out!?

But the essence is the same, it will still come out!?

I think so. But if it doesn't come out before the cold weather sets in, I would send her to winter quarters.
But in general, there are no guarantees that the pupa will not die and the butterfly will come out.

Tell me, no one bred Maak Swallowtails? What do caterpillars look like and eat?..

when the bedstraw hawk moth hatches

Comrades! Help! Tell me, and attakusa atlas (caterpillars) than you can feed!? And what tropical butterflies are better and easier to breed at home!? Thank you In Advance.

And how and how can you hang pupae from a stick?

Comrades! Help! Tell me, and attakusa atlas (caterpillars) than you can feed!? And what tropical butterflies are better and easier to breed at home!? thank you in advance.
And how and how can you hang pupae from a stick?

If I'm not mistaken, there are lilac leaves from our Attacus vegetation...
In general, I prefer our, Domestic)
Pupae to the stick can be hung on a special glue, if the cocoon-then sew a thread through it and tie it. And if the pupa initially did not "hang up" itself , then nothing needs to be done - let it lie as it lay.

Please tell me! And what types of tropical butterflies can you find a forage plant (available in Moscow) and what. I want to start breeding, and buying pupae is good, but I want a completely autonomous business))

And even if you breed yourself, how to distinguish a male from a female?)

Tell me, no one bred Maak Swallowtails? What do caterpillars look like and eat?..

In our conditions, the caterpillars of the Maak tail-bearer develop on Amur velvet, sometimes on herbaceous shaggy ash. Both are from the Rutaceae family. Look for its caterpillars on the velvet in the summer-you will surely find them. It is quite easy to grow it. About the appearance of the caterpillar-see the photo

This post was edited by Ekos - 02.10.2012 04: 04

Pictures:

Achillides_maackii_larva.jpg — (284.87к)

I'm trying to breed L. qurcus caterpillars without diapause. Already at the age of 5, they grow and eat well. But soon all the leaves will fall, and while they are green, I would like to prepare them in a suitable quality for feeding caterpillars.
In the refrigerator, oak leaves are stored for no more than a week. In the freezer for quite a long time, but after a couple of hours after defrosting, they turn yellow and dry out, and in general become unsuitable for feed. Maybe there are some techniques that would leave the leaves fresh for a long time? Share your experience who knows.

and I froze milkweed for Hyles euphorbiae, and nothing, they ate after zazmorozki

Maybe there are some techniques that would leave the leaves fresh for a long time? Share your experience with anyone who knows.

Many plants are perfectly stored in the refrigerator, unfortunately, this does not apply to oak. Only its young spring branches are kept relatively well.
Some caterpillars are able to feed on dried and then soaked leaves. Try it right now, maybe your caterpillars will be able to-in this case, just dry it.

I'm trying to breed L. qurcus caterpillars without diapause. Already at the age of 5, they grow and eat well. But soon all the leaves will fall, and while they are green, I would like to prepare them in a suitable quality for feeding caterpillars.
In the refrigerator, oak leaves are stored for no more than a week. In the freezer for quite a long time, but after a couple of hours after defrosting, they turn yellow and dry out, and in general become unsuitable for feed. Maybe there are some techniques that would leave the leaves fresh for a long time? Share your experience with anyone who knows.

Lasiocampa quercus-eats aspen bred a male on it in the summer, eats raspberries-kotbegemot raised caterpillars on it from eggs obtained from the female in the summer,and the caterpillars of both the last and penultimate instars were seen by himself.So you can try switching your pets to a different food plant.
In terms of timing, it looked like this.
Penultimate age 01.05.2012

Last age 11.05.2012

Well, the result
is 29.05.2012

29.06.2012

Lasiocampa quercus-eats aspen bred a male on it in the summer, eats raspberries-kotbegemot raised caterpillars on it from eggs obtained from the female in the summer,and the caterpillars of both the last and penultimate instars were seen by himself.So you can try switching your pets to a different food plant.

It seems to me that it is too late to change the food (age 5). Now, if they immediately fed on someone else, although you can try

You can try it on sprouted beans - in nature they also eat legumes.

Genadich, what is the point of switching to another plant? Are they stored longer? Moreover, as AGG said, I think it's a little late to change them to another feed plant.
lepidopterolog, it is also not possible to grow beans - to feed 60 caterpillars at the last age, etc. how many beans are needed.

still, the main question of the topic was how to preserve the leaves for a long time. maybe there are methods of some kind of processing?

This post was edited by Nicetas - 03.10.2012 16: 37

Well, sow the windowsill with beans - it grows quickly, until they eat all of it-a new one will grow

Genadich, what is the point of switching to another plant? Are they stored longer?

the same raspberries are perfectly stored in the refrigerator all winter and are quite suitable for feeding stick insects-a personal experience suggested by the zoo staff, where I bought them: if they immediately sat on raspberries, then it would be possible to stock it. drop off a few goslings and try to feed them raspberries or something else and at the same time make supplies and feed them

This post was edited by AGG - 03.10.2012 17: 26

that's what it turns out to be. but in any case, you can't find raspberries in the city during the day with a fire.
and something else, for example? what else is stored so well?

This post was edited by Nicetas - 03.10.2012 17: 26

as Gennadich wrote, aspen. but I don't know how it is stored. and find raspberries, a bunch of dachas around the city, it climbs over the fence-I don't want to tear, and in the forest it should be enough + blackberries

Genadich, what is the point of switching to another plant? Are they stored longer? Moreover, as AGG said, I think it's a little late to change them to another feed plant.
lepidopterolog, it is also not possible to grow beans - to feed 60 caterpillars at the last age, etc. how many beans are needed.

still, the main question of the topic was how to preserve the leaves for a long time. maybe there are methods of some kind of processing?

As we wrote above, raspberries are stored longer and fall off late.

And how is aspen stored?

And how is aspen stored?

I don't know, I didn't preserve it.

Does anyone know how yellow autumn leaves affect caterpillars in the quality of food? can I feed them?

This post was edited by Nicetas - 10.10.2012 19: 42

Does anyone know how yellow autumn leaves affect caterpillars in the quality of food? can I feed them?

Some caterpillars may just not like it.

Gennadich, you brought out l.quercus, didn't you? tell me, what is the size of the caterpillars at the last age?
I think mine are suspiciously small. mid-6th age, and only 4cm long.

Can someone recommend a recipe for reducing the winter diapause time of pupae? there is no point in waiting for spring, I would like to quickly put butterflies in the collection.

Can someone recommend a recipe for reducing the winter diapause time of pupae? there is no point in waiting for spring, I would like to quickly put butterflies in the collection.

Lots of light and heat. Although it is almost impossible to predict the time of diapause. It is not known when it will occur to the butterfly to be born. So, a week ago I wanted to see how the pupae are in the refrigerator. And what is it?! One of them has a drawing on the wings and moves! Took out, put-came out modeling))
You can try to "shorten" the winter - put the pupa for 5 days in the cold, and then get it out. But again - there is no guarantee.

There was a question about the content of tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta. I found such materials here:
http://insected.arizona.edu/manduca/PDFs/3-Rearing%2010.pdf
http://www.entm.purdue.edu/entomology/outr...ificialdiet.pdf

Artificial feed mixes. The question arises, what is the meaning of a mixture of such complexity and is there a reason to use wheat germ, and not, say, bran? Moreover, these embryos in the selected form are not so easy to find and they cost a lot, and bran is a cheap product. Plus , maybe it makes sense to replace the milk protein in the recipe with something else, for example, soy?

The point of this IPS is to get not just caterpillars of this species and bring them to the imago (for this purpose, you can plant a windowsill and tomatoes), but to get a good food object for terrarium animals. That is, toxic substances accumulating in the caterpillar like solanins should not be there.