Best way to bring moths over long-haul flights ?

    Hi everyone,

    To give you a little background: I am an entomology student from Belgium, and I have some experience with moth rearing. I am currently in Madagascar to study endemic butterflies and ways to promote them. I've investigated the threat of illegal catches of caterpillars/pupae in rainforests here, and I work with local farmers to teach them how to rear butterflies while reforesting lost habitats. In May, I will return to Belgium to finish my thesis. The last experiment I am willing to conduct is to study the development of Antherina suraka larvae under different abiotic settings (temperature, humidity, and lighting) to establish the most adequate environment.

    Thus, I am planning on bringing Antherina suraka from Madagascar to Europe (I have the necessary permits as I work alongside the national university).

    However, my experiment has to start in May, with enough eggs. I was planning on bringing eggs from local pairings, but I'm afraid of the short timeframe to collect and transport them, and that the flight might damage the eggs due to pressure variations. If I bring pupae, I don't know if I will have enough time to wait for them to emerge, breed, lay eggs, and hatch.

    Have you ever experienced loss of eggs over long flights? If not, how did you protect the package (which will be in my luggage) ?

    Which option seems to be the most efficient?

    If my eggs don't hatch or if I fail to pair them on time, do you know any suppliers with F0 or F1 generation as a backup plan?

    Thank you so so much for your help and insights.

    Happy spring!

    Robin

  • AD

    Hi,

    you can easily take some ova with you in your hand luggage,

    not in the hold (pressure and temperature differences are too great)

    put them in a tick-tock box, in an empty pen case,

    something that is sturdy and does not break or dent,

    with cotton wool or paper so they don't get shaken up too much.

    • Official Post

    Indeed, the luggage and freight compartments of most passenger airplanes and also freighters are pressurized like the cabin, since they do often carry animals and on freighters personell has to perform safety checks. However, they are usually kept colder, which should be within survivable temperatures for most eggs regardless. So they should be fine wherever you put them, but the hand luggage is surely the safest option.

    Greetings Dennis

    Hi Robin,

    a couple of years ago I was in Mauritius where I found some caterpillars of Daphnis nerii. When I flew home again they were ready to pupate or were already in the prepupal stage. I put them into small plastic boxes which I transported in my hand baggage. When I arrived at home everything was fine and even one caterpillar pupated during the flight. Therefore transport in hand baggage shouldn't be a problem.

    My experiences with sending eggs or cocoons on long haul flights were also positiv.

    Good luck,

    Karl

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