Posts by Klaas

  • Eriogaster arbusculae breeding

    Today many adults emerged of my breedings of E. arbusculae in 2019 and 2021. I collected the larvae in their 2nd instar. Rearing on Salix was not complicated. The larvae were mostly kept in the fridge and were allowed to feed only 4 hours a day under a hot lamp. The cocoons were kept outside at lowland conditions. Each winter a few adults emerged and in the spring of 2021 I missed a mass emergence of my first (2019) breeding. Somehow the high temperatures of the past days (17 degrees C and higher) triggered a mass emergence at the end of the afternoon.

  • Does anyone have any idea what this is?

    I'm sure this is a joke. It wouldn't surprise me if people deliberately release Saturnia lindia in the wild, but Saturnia lindia pupae were brought on the market by Serge Yevdoshenko only very recently, in 2020. The first adults would have emerged in 2021. It is very unlikely that some random person in Hungary walks into an adult the next spring, recognizes that it is something special, takes very nice pictures and sends them to someone who posts them on actias.de(!). It should also be taken into account that Saturnia lindia won't emerge in early April in an Eastern European climate.

  • Verkrüppelter Falter entfaltet sich!

    Quote from hoehlearnd

    (..) after an hour or maybe more, the wings dry to their hard form. (...) This procedure is not variable! If the wings are not inflated, they dry too.
    (...) I breed butterflies and Moth since 50 years and never ever a butterfly was able to spread the wings after failed directly after hatching.

    I agree that once the adult has started to inflate its wings, and it fails, there is no chance that the wings can be inflated later on.
    However, not all adults try to inflate their wings directly after emergence. Adults (in some species?) Can wait many hours. Archon apollinus need a suitable spot to bask in the sun, and Lemonia philopalus regularly wait from the morning until dusk before they start and the resulting wings are perfect.
    So the theory of you and Dennis about procedures and molecular processes might seem plausible, but the whole thing is more complicated. Your theory also doesn't explain why the wings don't stiffen inside the pupa, as there can be air between the wing and the pupal skin for many days before emergence.

    Regards, Klaas

  • Verkrüppelter Falter entfaltet sich!

    Quote from bellargus

    That's kind of hard to believe, but maybe in your case, the wings never fully dried? I mean how on earth would they be able to dry up completely and then still inflate?If that was the case you would have material for some publications...

    Greetings Dennis

    When butterflies/moths emerge from the pupa, the wings are usually not 'wet', so why would they 'dry up'?

    Completely developed adults can stay inside the pupa for many days, for example in Lemonidae. They wait for the right moment to emerge simultaneously. How do you explain that the wings don't dry up inside the pupa?

    As far as I know, the wings get stiff only after they have been fully or partially inflated, or in very old/dead specimens.

  • Neoris huttoni question

    Thank you Rudi. So far 2 breeders informed me that I can be sure that there was a pairing, otherwise the female would never have laid all eggs in the first night.
    During my handpairing attempt, the male didn't grab the female at all, there was no copula.
    From my experience unmated females can start laying if they are close to dying, but this was not the case: the female was still strong the next day and it was able to fly fast.

    Regards, Klaas

  • Eriogaster arbusculae breeding

    The small larval nest that I collected, contained 65 larvae. An accurate counting was not possible before the last instar. In the last instar a few larvae escaped and 3 died. All other caterpillars made cocoons and I assume they pupated successfully.
    Each day I kept the caterpillars in the fridge in a closed box from 20:00 until 15:00 the next day. The bottom of the box was covered with toilet paper. In the afternoon I stored the box at room temperature, I added fresh twigs of Salix alba x babylonica, I took off the lid, and to prevent the larvae from escaping I put the box in a cage. When the caterpillars stopped feeding, it took up to 4 days until they started pupating.

    It is important to keep in mind that a wild collected nest can contain parasitoids. When I collected the nest with L2 larvae, I thought the larvae were too young to be infected already. However, at the time the larvae were moulting to L5, I suddenly saw many parasitic wasps crawling out of the nest. I was just in time to kill them. When I opened the nest, I discovered the old egg-batch in the center, and around it there were small wasp cocoons. These cocoons were probably already there when I collected the nest. It is likely that in the wild, the 2nd generation of parasitic wasps completely kill whole larval nests.

  • Neoris huttoni question

    Yesterday afternoon my only m/f pair of Neoris huttoni emerged almost simultaneously. The adults were very large and they seemed healthy. At dusk the female was flying around so much that I tried to handpair it with the male. After rougly 10 minutes without success I released the adults back into the flight cage. At 10:30 pm I saw that the female was calling in the cage outside. This morning I discovered that the female laid all eggs, the abdomen is completely empty. Is it likely that the pair mated? Or is it normal for a female of Neoris hutton to lay all eggs anyway during the first night?

  • Eriogaster arbusculae breeding

    This week I collected some larvae of Eriogaster arbusculae (L2/3, L5). According to literature on the internet, the larvae are very difficult to rear. A previous breeding of E. arbusculae failed. I was wondering if anyone could advice me under which conditions the larvae can be reared successfully? Many thanks in advance!

    Regards, Klaas

  • Allergische Reaktion nach Kontakt mit Raupen

    Like Rainer and Sasha, I recommend you show your finger to a doctor (general practitioner, dermatologist etc.). Reading your story, an allergic reaction seems an unlikely cause to me, and if it is a serious condition (for example panaritium), appropriate treatment shouldn't be delayed. All the best.