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Post by rockpickerforever on Aug 10, 2016 16:28:45 GMT -5
My new career!!!
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Post by Pat on Aug 10, 2016 16:35:41 GMT -5
Jean, sorry your butterfly didn't make it. Next one probably will. It was neat to watch its progress, and to learn about hanging upside down to help the wings open. Thanks for the butterfly lesson!
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 21, 2016 18:18:26 GMT -5
UPDATE October 21, 2016
Butterflies still buzzing around, and laying eggs. Decided to try one more time, see if I couldn't get it to catch the entire life cycle.
Caterpillar a couple days old. 
Growing!! I raised five of them this time.
A couple of the bigger ones. There was probably a two week period between the first egg hatching and the last.
The oldest.
Two eclosed yesterday around 5pm. Waited until this morning to get some pics and then release them.
Here's one
And the other. Still have three more pupae to eclose.
Video of one of the releases. Didn't even get a chance to catch the second one on film, lol.
Video link : c1.staticflickr.com/9/8575/30440876776_a06a1afd02_z.jpg
Hope this video (on Flickr) works. If not, I'll post the link.
Thanks for looking! Isn't nature fun? But these five are the last ones I'll do.
Jean
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2016 18:21:15 GMT -5
Mother Butterfly is your new name. Congratulations. Nice work! Today, you win the internet! Broken as it may be.  |
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
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Post by barclay on Oct 21, 2016 19:29:31 GMT -5
I always wondered what the "bird turd" caterpillars turned into. Guess i will let them munch my citrus tree leaves.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2016 20:14:15 GMT -5
rockpickerforeverJean, Your video link is an image. See the .jpg? I still say you are amazing!!
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 21, 2016 20:52:25 GMT -5
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 21, 2016 21:00:21 GMT -5
Cool, two different species though. Green larvae with the stripe is Tiger Swallowtail. " Orange Dawg", weird lumpy dark larvae is the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly in your last pics.....Mel
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quartz
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breakin' rocks in the hot sun
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Post by quartz on Oct 22, 2016 0:26:02 GMT -5
Good for you, fun for you to do, fun for us to follow. I suppose following one with aa camera is a challenge.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 22, 2016 8:12:34 GMT -5
Cool, two different species though. Green larvae with the stripe is Tiger Swallowtail. " Orange Dawg", weird lumpy dark larvae is the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly in your last pics.....Mel Thanks for the info, Mel. After a little research, I believe they all are the Giant Swallowtail. None of my caterpillars were green like the photo taken from the internet in the original post. And the butterflies themselves, while lighter colored below, are quite dark on the dorsal side. From what I read, the Orange Dawgs are a more recent species here. The Wester Tiger Swallowtails are more what I remember from years past. Following @shotgunner 's advise, I continued to place fresh leaves into the cage even after they pupated to keep the humidity up. I also put a small bowl with damp paper towel in, too. Increased humidity the ticket! |
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Oct 22, 2016 9:52:46 GMT -5
We have these Butterflies here in Oregon too,I'm liking the way your keeping them on your property....
I remember doing that same thing in high school in Montana,back in the late 60's...It was a cool project,that did keep my attention.. (which was hard to do)...
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metalsmith
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Post by metalsmith on Oct 22, 2016 9:58:59 GMT -5
I was really pleased to find this thread and enjoyed a good read. Congrats on the successful brood and release and so well documented. I used to breed butterflies as a kid, from tortoiseshell to small coppers. Not much and not for many years. I don't recall they had invented Painted Ladies this far north back then (I blame global warming...)! In the garage I had a stool draped in muslin with larval food plants. I still chase them (butterflies, not stools) round the slopes now and again (and again and again). Here's a pic from my album - this is the Scarce Swallowtail butterfly. Not that it is necessarily scarce if you find the right bush! The geologists among you might be familiar with the location - the River Vis which gave its name to the Visean - the gorge was filled (if you knew where to look) with ammonites that define the horizon around the globe. I digress... a photo of a Scarce Swallowtail then:  |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 25, 2016 16:35:48 GMT -5
Liking your Scarce Swallowtail there, Chas! Different, but strikingly similar.
The third of the five pupae just hatched out this morning. I was afraid the pupa had gone bad, it turned all dark yesterday. But then this morning -
Butterflies #1 and #2 took 19 and 18 days to emerge, respectively. #3 took 20 days to eclose.
Only two more to go! #4 and #5 became pupae on 10/5 and 10/7. So any day now...
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Post by rockpickerforever on Nov 4, 2016 12:16:19 GMT -5
Finally, the last two pupae hatched, and the butterflies emerged fully formed and functional! I believe @shotgunner 's tip about continuing to add fresh leaves (keeping the humidity up) did the trick! Didn't hurt to put a small bowl with wet paper towel in there, either. They also needed to hang (not be down on the floor) while they pumped up and dried their wings, requiring enough space to be able to do so.
The final one, hatched yesterday 11/3/16.
Video of it being released. Here's a link to it:
www.flickr.com/photos/105707613@N07/30657672062/in/album-72157670971062766/
Although I had more than five caterpillars this last time, not all of them made it to pupa stage. They were of different ages, so no data on how long they were actually caterpillars. But seems to me the first batch I did, they spent about two weeks in that stage. Once pupae, these last five took 19, 18, 20, 21 and 28 days respectively to become butterflies. I totally agree with Mel that these are NOT Western Tiger Swallowtail butterflies, but instead are Giant Swallowtails, or Orange Dogs (Papilio cresphontes). I do recall the Tiger Swallowtails being the predominant one in years past.
Although a fun experiment, I was only kidding about this becoming my new career, lol.
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agatemaggot
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Post by agatemaggot on Nov 13, 2016 19:50:41 GMT -5
I hatched moths and Butterflies years ago but kept all the critters in a fairly large cage. I believe they need a bunch more room than a person suspects. My set-up was about 2 ft. by 2 ft by 3 foot high, never had the wing problem thing.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 13, 2016 23:07:33 GMT -5
Butterfly house at Callaway Gardens Georgia  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2016 16:28:19 GMT -5
I hatched moths and Butterflies years ago but kept all the critters in a fairly large cage. I believe they need a bunch more room than a person suspects. My set-up was about 2 ft. by 2 ft by 3 foot high, never had the wing problem thing. To get tomato worms to reproduce I used 6' tall 4x4 screen enclosures. I suspect 2x that would be better. Nice thing was, once bred, the females could be kept in a shoebox. Makes easier egg collection. Humidity easy to control. High production species, lots of work. Lots of space needed. |
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agatemaggot
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Post by agatemaggot on Nov 21, 2016 0:34:06 GMT -5
What were you raising the tomato Worms for ?
When I was a kid I used them for bait. Hit every garden around the lake we lived on about twice a week !
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2016 14:08:30 GMT -5
agatemaggotLizard food. It worked, but the work and space made it not worthwhile. The dragons loved them!
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Post by 1dave on Nov 21, 2016 23:08:44 GMT -5
Sorry, no, spiceman . Just doing it for the experience, lol.
I almost wasn't going to post this update, but maybe someone else will learn from it. The metamorphosed butterfly eclosed from the chrysalis on August 3. Unfortunately, its wings never did fully unfurl and stiffen. Once again, it did not read the manual, which would have informed it that it was supposed to hang from the chrysalis (upside down) to let gravity assist it with the wings opening and stiffening up. I found it (in the bottom of the cage) already hatched one morning when I got up, no idea how much time had elapsed since it had emerged.
Once it became apparent that it was doomed, I looked online for information. It seems this happens a lot in nature. They MUST get those wings pumped up within an hour of emerging. While I was a little bummed about it, I was nowhere near as upset as the lady that had posted on the blog I was reading. She "humanely euthanized" her damaged butterfly by putting it in a bag in the freezer. I put mine out in the orange tree where the hatched egg had been found. I'm sure it was snatched up by a passing bird, Mother Nature can be cruel at times. At least it got to be free for a short while.
Looking down into the empty case.
Timeline: 7/6/17 - Found freshly hatched egg in navel orange tree. 7/20/16 - started to pupate 8/3/16 - eclosed from chrysalis
Two weeks as caterpillar, two weeks as chrysalis. Four weeks start to finish.
I would do it again if I have the opportunity.
Lesson learned. Always provide something for the butterfly to hang from on the ceiling of the cage, and a way to get to it.
Makes you wonder how any of us made it! |
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