Posts by kokkie

Hi all,

I had a box with sand that got knocked over during cleaning up my bee hotel.

I collected most of them of the ground but I got no clue which species they are and how to properly take care of them.

I could only find information on taking care of mason bee cocoons. Which are left out in the open. But i'm not sure if if this will work with sand burrowing species.

Can I leave them out in the open or should I cover them with sand? As I'm not sure if they can dig themselves out.

Kind regards,

Joris

Hi everyone,

I've tried to call in wild males with a female in a 30 cm pop up cage, but with no luck.

I've searched online how it looks when female moths are trying to call males but i'm not sure if it's different for every species.

The first couple of night after it eclosed I put it outside, I checked it regurlarly after midnight. But it's just staying still, clinging to the netting. Till today 9 days after emerging it started laying infertile eggs.

I'm guessing there's no way now to get her to be fertilised, as I read that they only have enough pheromones for the first 2-3 nights? Or is it possible to handpair them?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Joris

Thanks Rudi, much appreciated.

So a lot of things that could've gone wrong. Best case would be if I mishandled some of the eggs.

Got a few more today, laid on a potted plant. I'll keep an eye on them and see how they do.

Hi everyone,

I got a around 10 eggs from a wild female but most of the eggs have collapsed.

I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly, that the first few eggs are mostly infertile? Or if it's the small chance the female didn't mate?

With regards

Thanks a lot Prem,

I've put them in the largest cage I had, which was 60x40x40. Eventually the female laid 5 eggs but it looks like they're infertile. So I released them at a suitable spot.

I will give it another try with a bigger cage if I can find some caterpillars

Thank you

Do you also happen to have some advice on breeding them?

I've put it in a 30x30x30 cage with some nettles and a male I've caught in case it hadn't mated yet. I'm feeding them twice a day, but no luck with any eggs.

I tried last year with catterpillars I raised but had the same problem. I released them after about 3-4 days because their wings were getting to damaged.

Hi everyone,

I just caught an A. Levana and I'm not sure if it's a female. Based on the size of the abdomen i'm guessing it is.

I really could use another opinion. Hope these pictures are of any help.

Kind regards

Thanks everyone.
I switched out the sand for some cocopeat I had lying around and it started to burrow pretty quickly.

I did try some loose garden soil before I put in the sand. I gues it was still to compact.

Hi guys,

I found a mimas tiliae caterpillar a few weeks ago, and its ready for pupation.

However I'm having problems with it actually pupating. I've put it in a container with some bird sand, but it's just been running around making attempts burrowing and giving up for the last 24h.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,

I want to breed some indigenous butterflies but I'm having terrible luck finding eggs or caterpillars. I only found a really small nest of inachis io and a single araschnia levana caterpillar,sadly most of them died yesterday due to parasites.
I was thinking of catching some Araschnia levana or Polygonia c-album as they spawn multiple generations, but I don't know if it's a viable option and if the ones flying around now are still able to breed ?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

PS : I can read German but writing is a whole other story.