|
|
Post by bluemoth on Nov 15, 2013 12:46:27 GMT -8
So I did a trade with a person for some Buckeye butterfly eggs. Normaly the eggs are green and the embryoes become pale yellow green - a bit hard to see if fertile. The eggs that arrived were blue and the embryoes showed up as white be for they got gray just be for hatching. This made it very easy to see that the eggs were fertile. At the collage that the eggs came from the larva were fed an artifishal diet. So what I wonder is how can I make my Buckeye eggs blue or some other color sence I feed them on live leaves? Any ideas out there? I am asking this question here sence the person has refused to anser me through e mail sent to them. I am already experamenting with adding food coloring to leaves with some second instar larva.
|
|
|
|
Post by admin on Nov 16, 2013 20:27:37 GMT -8
You have an artificial diet for buckeyes? Tell me more.
|
|
|
|
Post by bluemoth on Nov 19, 2013 13:15:47 GMT -8
The department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the Cornell University in New York has a captive Buckeye Butterfly colleny. They feed them an artifishal diet that makes the females lay blue eggs I am guessing. I just want to know how the eggs get blue. Is there a dye in the artifishal diet that makes the butterflies lay blue eggs? Are the adults fed dye in their nectar? How can I make my butterflies lay blue eggs so it is easyer to see if they are fertile?
|
|
|
|
Post by papilio28570 on Nov 22, 2013 16:58:57 GMT -8
It might be simply an artifact from frequent inbreeding.
|
|
|
|
Post by bluemoth on Nov 23, 2013 16:46:40 GMT -8
I have a bunch of larva from the university. I will be breeding some eastern ones back together again with each other. Some will be bread with my butterflies. If this is indeed an egg color mutation and not related to what the butterflies or larva are fed then the eastern ones that are bread back to each other should produce blue eggs. There are no breeding problems, such as deformities in adult butterflies, at the university butterfly colleny the student ashured me. I did send an e mail to the department that has the Buckeyes - hope fully they will send me more info on the blue eggs.
|
|
|
|
Post by bluemoth on Dec 19, 2013 14:04:46 GMT -8
INFO UPDATE : So the mystery of the blue Buckeye eggs has been solved! It is artifical lep diet that makes the butterflies lay blue eggs. A test was done by the university student - plantain fed larva lay green eggs when adults, atifical diet fed larva lay blue eggs when adults. The ingredents are found on web site Bio Serv. As soon as I have the recipe I will list it here.
|
|
