Beiträge von Vantala

    Dear Connor,
    The discription of this construction was published in materials of INVERTEBRATES IN ZOO AND INSECTARIUMCOLLECTIONS,Materials of the Fourth International WorkshopMoscow, Russia, 18-23 October 2010.
    I turn the lights off for the night -- this helps to imitate the night jungles temperature drop and saturation of the air with water vapors.
    Good luck,
    Vassiliy

    http://www.tropicarium.ru

    Hatching of tropical butterfly pupae requires a special conditions, imitating a tropical climate. I developed a simple and reliable incubator which maintains high humidity and good ventilation. It is fabricated from white foamed polyvinylchloride. Incubator has upper box with electrical parts, living chamber and lower box with water. The upper box contains two linear fluorescent lamps for lighting the incubator. It is separated from the living chamber with stainless steel mesh. The upper box also contains two incandescent lamps controlled by thermostat, which heats the air. Warmed air is moved by two fans down to the box with water. All electrical components are duplicated to increase the reliability of the system. In this construction warm air saturated with water vapors circulates constantly. This system copulate the heating and ventilation resulting a perfect imitation of tropical climate. The false floor is lined with disposable underpad to collect meconium. We also use a special nonwooven material in the bottom of the living chamber to give the possibility for those butterflies which falled from the stick to climb up and to dry their wings. It is fixed with magnets. We use a plastic tubes for pupae and we fix them with a glue gun. The described here system is very simple, effective and provide a high level of hygene.