Sexing Apaturinae pupae

[irisscientist]

Although size can be a good general reference for sexing pupae, this can often prove to be inaccurate even to the most experienced of breeders. Similar to sexing the pupae of certain moth species, there are usually sex specific characteristics of most butterfly pupae, therefore making it possible to accurately determine the sex of your butterfly pupal specimens prior to emergence. Unlike most moth species however, this is generally much more difficult to achieve. With the assistance of some stero-microscopes I consequently attach some images which should help those of you wishing/wanting to accurately determine the sex of pupae belonging to members of the Apaturinae.

Although the below images are of A.ilia, I suspect that those of similar/related species are extremely similar. In explanation, males have a circular portion just beneath the anal claspers. This is separated into 2 equal halves via a vertical line, similar to "⦶".

Females on the other hand lack this circular portion and instead have a "+", the bottom portion of this cross transects the fourth pupal segment, which is directly below the anal claspers.

To better high light these difference I also attached some higher magnification shots of the same images.
Male:

Female:


I hope some of you find this information useful?

[nomad]

Very interesting information, Thanks for sharing your detailed pictures. Peter

[bobw]

A friend of mine reckons he can sex final instar larvae of A. iris. Next time I see him I'll try to find out more details.

Bob

[irisscientist]

Bobw,

> A friend of mine reckons he can sex final instar larvae of A. iris

As few people are probably able to do this (larval sexing) we may well find out that the person who most kindly helped me define the pupal sexing (shown above), is in fact the same individual as your friend. I was told that in order to sex final instar larvae:

“the male claspers are visible as two white marks under the skin just behind the yellow v on the back”.

I was however unable to better define this description for myself this season, so unfortunately could not verify this information for certain. As I was also analyzing ilia larvae, which have a large yellow V in the middle of their backs, I was uncertain if the note (mentioned above) corresponded to this V, or to the V which is just above the anal claspers at end of the larvae?


Mark