ACTIAS

Hi everyone,

I would be very interested in any information regarding the Papilio machaon subspecies/form 'alpica'.
If it is more than only a cold-form, does anyone know if it also occurs in Valais near Martigny?

One week ago I let a few wild females (from 2000m-2100m height) lay eggs in captivity and I released the butterflies the next day.
These females were very pale yellow with orange eyes and they were more hairy than 'normal'. I will rear part of the caterpillars
at alpine conditions and the the others at lowland conditions. If possible I will also use different foodplants, until now they have
only accepted Angelica. If the characteristics from the females have a genetic basis, they should be visible in the offspring reared
at both conditions am I right? I will post some pictures of some P. machaon specimens that I photographed soon.

Regards, Klaas

Here are some pictures of a female with alpicae-characteristics I think (I hope it's not wishful thinking!), Valais, 1800m height.
Not all specimens that I saw were this pale, but almost all specimens had orange instead of eyes.

The first 25 caterpillars have pupated. I just checked their gender and I have only 1 female! How could this be possible?
From some Lycaenidae/Nymphalidae species I know that the male adults emerge a few days earlier than the females, does anyone know
if this is the same in Papilio machaon?

Regards, Klaas

Thank you very much for your help Sphinx!

Dear Sphinx,

At first I had only sexed them by eye and this lead to my false conclusion that most of the pupae were males.
Because it seemed to unlikely to me, I made close-up pictures of the end of the pupal abdomens and I found that they are very easy to sex this way.
Females have a narrow groove in the middle of the ventral side of the 2nd abdominal segment.
Now there are only a few pupae left of which I can't determine the gender, because they have very vague female characteristics.
I will post some macro pictures from Papilio machaon pupae in this topic as soon as I can.

Regarding your last question, in only a few pupae I can find developing butterflies: their eyes are turning dark when you hold the pupae close to a lamp.

Best regards, Klaas

A few of my (ex ovo) pupae produced a second generation and I got one mating. Yesterday was the first sunny day of the week, my 3 days old female laid 55 eggs in 6 hours time!
I'm keeping it in a 40x40x60cm breeding cage in my garden, with an infrared lamp. I try to feed it with a sugar solution twice a day. The female lays eggs on Angelica only and shows
no interest in Foeniculum. The reason could be that it was reared on Angelica, but this ignoring of Foeniculum may also have a genetical basis.