Beiträge von Klaas

  • Saturnia (Neoris) huttoni

    Saturnia naessigi, Saturnia galeropa, Saturnia shadulla, Saturnia schencki, Saturnia eckweileri, Saturnia clasnaumanni, Saturnia bergmanni...
    The whole splitting up of Saturnia (Neoris) huttoni into all these so-called 'species' confuses me. They all look the same to me (BOLD Systems: Taxonomy Browser - Saturnia {genus}), especially keeping in mind that there is much individual variation within populations. Does anybody know how the authors justify the description of all these new species?

  • Butterfly pupae: alive or dead?

    Hello everyone,

    Can anyone tell me how I can determine if butterfly pupae are alive?

    This summer I discovered that Papilio pupae that sunk in water, were alive. Pupae that floated above the water, were all infected with parasites.

    Today I received a number of Papilio sp. pupae that have movable abdomens and they are translucent like live pupae. None of them contain developing adults. In water, half of them sink and the others float just beneath the surface. Is this a reliable sign that they are dead?

    Kind regards,
    Klaas

  • Only 4 larval instars in Smerinthus caecus?

    Zitat von Serge

    I think Autumn entered correction due bad quality of food plant. I just finished my own rearing. Pupae are noticeably smaller than in August, but anyway they 56-64 mm in length.

    I used Salix babilonica.

    Regards,
    Serge

    Bad quality of the food plants can certainly explain a reduced larval length. In Acherontia atropos, larvae grow slower if the food quality is poor. They have a reduced size in L5. My experience however, is that they will moult to L6 and end up being bigger than average.
    The quality of the Salix alba that I'm using for my Smerinthus caecus larvae can't be that bad, because my larvae are actually growing very fast now and it seems they will reach a normal length of 6-7 cm in L4.
    But maybe certain substances in older Salix leafs can trigger changes in the normal development of Smerinthus caecus larvae. A reduced number of larval instars might be a normal phenomenon in this species. It could be an adaptation to a very short summer in boreal areas.

    Regards, Klaas

  • Only 4 larval instars in Smerinthus caecus?

    No I certainly didn't miss an instar. I cleaned the containers every day. I did notice that the larvae were growing very slowly in L1 and L2, compared to Smerinthus ocellatus/kindermannii.

    I now found a similar record of only 4 larval instars in a breeding report of Smerinthus cerisyi, on the forum of insectnet.com. Just like Smerinthus caecus, Smerinthus cerisyi normally has 5 larval instars.

    I am very interested to know if other people who obtained eggs from me, have the same experience. One breeder already informed me that his L3 larvae are already 4cm in length, so it is likely that I am not the only one.

    Regards,
    Klaas

  • Only 4 larval instars in Smerinthus caecus?

    At the moment I am breeding Smerinthus caecus. The larvae have only just reached the 4th instar. I noticed that they have an exceptionally large head and horn, comparable with the size of a full-grown Smerinthus ocellata larva. Has anyone ever recorded 4 instead of 5 larval instars in Smerinthus caecus, or in other species of the genus Smerinthus?

  • Smerinthus caecus

    I have no experience with kufu. In Holland the quality of Salix is still very good, so I expect I can rear my L3 larvae to pupation without difficulty. Maybe you should search for other trees/bushes?

    Regards, Klaas

  • Lemonia taraxaci mating problems

    No help needed anmore. Last night I kept 2 females and 2 males in a 60x35x35 cm cage, outside at 12 degrees Celsius. It was their second night. The moths were resting on some twigs that were put straight up in some boxes of sand. At 24:00h they hadn't moved yet. This morning the females were dead and they had laid all their eggs. I'm quite sure they must have mated, because earlier females died after 48-60 hours without laying a single egg.

  • Lemonia taraxaci mating problems

    In the past week some of my Lemonia taraxaci pupae hatched. I tried to obtain a natural copula in a 35x35x35cm cage with fine netting with the first adults, but without any success. The females were restlessly crawling around in the top of the cage. I then tried to make a hand-pairing. The males easily grabbed the females , but the females were so agile that each time they got detached too early. Yesterday some new adults emerged. I put them in a large plant pot covered with netting and some sand with twigs in the bottom. Last night the females were hanging on to the twigs and calling, but this time the males were continously trying to find a way out of the pot and they never came close to the females.

    Has anyone ever obtained a copula of a Lemonia species in captivity? I am very interested if in any information that can help me. By the way, I know I can also release some males outside at dusk and try to re-attract them with a female, but I have so few specimens that I find this a bit too risky.

    Regards, Klaas

  • Saturnia josephinae Zucht

    Last winter, despite a low hatching rate of the eggs, I had a successful breeding of Saturnia josephinae on Rubus. The adults emerged in the summer of 2015, without diapausing. I witnessed matings of 3 females with different males. All eggs (hundreds) were infertile.

  • Parnassius apollo wiskotti - ein verschwundenes Juwel?

    Hello Arnd,

    The wiskotti form is a rare form from Gotland, indeed caused by a recessive mutation. Even though the form can be absent for years, hypothecically many individuals may still be carriers of the mutation. You can calculate this using the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium model for allele frequencies, if you assume there is no selection on the mutation. Each butterfly has 2 copies of the every gene, 1 from the mother and 1 from the father. Alleles are variants of the same gene. In the Gotland population there are apollo specimens with 2 wildtype alleles for the wiskotti gene (WW, homozygote normal), 1 wildtype + 1 wiskotti allele (Ww, heterozygote, carrier) and 2 wiskotti alleles (ww, homozygote wiskotti). WW specimens have a normal phenotype. Ww specimens carry the wiskotti mutation, but because the mutation is recessive, the phenotype is also normal. Only ww specimens have the wiskotti form. So the wiskotti form can only arise if both parents are heterozygous (Ww) or homozygous for the wiskotti mutation (ww).

    The Hardy-Weinberg proportions are as follows: 'p^2 +2pq + q^2 = 1' and 'p + q = 1'. p and q are the 2 different alleles (W and w) and in this model the frequency of the alleles is in an equilibrium state. Let's say p is the normal, wildtype allele and q is the allele with the wiskotti mutation. p^2 is the frequency of normal homozygotes (WW), 2pq is the frequency of heterzygote carriers of the wiskotti mutation (Ww) and q^2 is the frequency of the wiskotti mutation homozygotes (ww). If hypothetically 1 in 1000 specimens on Gotland have the wiskotti form, how many other specimens are carriers of the mutation?

    q^2 = 1/1000 = 0,001, so q = 0,0316
    p + q = 1, so p = 1 - q = 1 - 0,0316 = 0,9684

    2pq = 2 x 0,9684 x 0,0316 = 0,061 (6,1%)

    This shows that even if only 1 in 1000 apollo specimens on Gotland have the wiskotti form, roughly 1 in 16 specimens is a carrier of the wiskotti mutation.

    Regards, Klaas

  • Breeding butterflies to free them in the wild

    Zitat von mario_lorenzi

    Hello!
    I am currently buying and breeding butterflies with the objective of freeing them into the wild.
    I am now trying with Samia Cynthia,

    Hi Mario and Arnd,

    Of course Samia cynthia as a species won't cause much harm to the environment in southern Europe. I was referring to the quote above, which does not mention 'freeing' only Samia cynthia, but butterflies in general.

    I wouldn't be surprised if the pathogens that cause diseases in butterflies and larvae in far away places are different from the ones our native lepidoptera are adapted to. Why risk introducing them to the environment in your area? Some pathogens like Wolbachia infect certain lepidoptera species and live intracellularly. This means they need the butterfly to infect other butterflies. In the past decade Hypolimnas bolina became almost extinct on 2 Samoan islands, after the species became infected with Wolbachia. The microbe kills all male embryos, so after some years less than 1% of the aduts were male.

    Regards, Klaas

  • Breeding butterflies to free them in the wild

    Hi Mario,

    I wouldn't recommend releasing foreign butterflies in your area. There are many cases of species that became terrible pests after humans introduced them in new areas. Moreover, many introduced species have also displaced native species. It is also possible that the specimens you obtained from abroad, carry diseases (bacteria, viruses) that may have a negative impact on the native lepidoptera. Releasing livestock may give you a good feelding, but you certainly aren't helping the local ecosystems. Even lepidoptera are not harmless!

    Regards,
    Klaas

  • Papilio machaon ssp. aus Liaoning (China)

    Liaoning is so close to Korea that it might be ssp hippocrates that flies there. I don't know if schantungensis flies so far north. However, I have serious doubts if the specimen on the picture is really from China. To me it looks like a western Palearctic ssp., probably gorganus.


    Regards, Klaas