Last year my H. cecropia caterpillars decided to, for whatever reason, pupate early. This resulted in very small pupae. They all look healthy... just smaller.
I don't think I'll actually get a paring, but assuming I will, what would the offspring be like? I'm pretty certain it wasn't genetic and probably my choice of foodplant as well as cold temperatures. I'm going to improve on both of those things this year. IF I were to get a pairing, would the offspring also small even though it's not genetical?
Are the eggs and ovaries proportional to her body size or does she just not fit as many (normally sized) eggs as a normal cecropia female? Assuming the eggs are smaller, will the resulting caterpillars also be or will they fail to hatch? If they're smaller, their final instar will be too, right? That would start the dwarf cycle all over again, which is what I don't want.
Basically, what I'm asking is - would it be a bad idea to attempt breeding them?
Any help would be much appreciated
Offspring of dwarf specimens
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Hello Vera,
I don't think that rearing this small moth will be a problem, it should not be a genetical problem and should be "fixed" with better food and live conditions for the offspring. Of course there could be problems with the pairing between a dwarf and a big moth, but if the differences are not to big it should work.
Maybe there could be some hatching problems due to weak animals, the eggs could be a little bit smaller but as I know from other animals with a big discrepance in the size of the adults (Branchiopoda, belonging to the crustacea) the biggest impact will be the amount of eggs.
If you are interested in this species you should try a new pairing.
Brgds
Jan
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