robert61
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Post by robert61 on Sept 10, 2016 11:18:40 GMT -8
the green caterpillar of Papilio manlius that can be found together with the caterpillars of Papilio demodocus on Mauritius nowerdays Papilio manlius seems to be quiete rar on the Island. ............ few weeks later I can see that I was lucky that non on the found caterpillars whas Papilio demodocus, probably because the flight season of them has just begun and most Papilio demodocus have still been in the pupae
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Sept 10, 2016 12:37:25 GMT -8
Where are you?
By the picture it looks Tropical.
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Post by bichos on Sept 10, 2016 16:58:14 GMT -8
The Island of Mauritius would be a good guess.
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Sept 10, 2016 23:12:20 GMT -8
I thought I knew a great deal about the geography of the world, but I learned something knew today.
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Post by bichos on Sept 11, 2016 0:21:28 GMT -8
Lol! Its an interesting place with 4 small lucanidae; Figulus approximatus (Benesh, 1955) Figulus scotti (Benesh, 1955) Figulus vinsoni (Benesh, 1955) Vinsonella caeca (Arrow, 1940) You might recall the flightless Dodo bird. It was abundant on the island untill people landed there and it quickly bacame extinct.
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leptraps
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Post by leptraps on Sept 11, 2016 6:08:10 GMT -8
Eaten into extinction!
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robert61
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Post by robert61 on Sept 11, 2016 6:22:59 GMT -8
lets see if any of my few caterpillars will survive..... am trying to raise them on orange/Lemon trees
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Post by Adam Cotton on Sept 11, 2016 7:12:47 GMT -8
They should do well on Citrus, but you will need to keep them well ventilated if they are in the warm lowlands. The nireus group species larvae are susceptible to bacterial disease if airflow is poor and temperature high.
You will also need to protect them from pupal parasitoids just before pupating. The Chalcidoid parasitoids can get through mosquito screen, so you need to put the full grown larvae in a finer mesh sleeve than that.
Adam.
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robert61
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Post by robert61 on Sept 11, 2016 7:18:34 GMT -8
I have them with very fine mesh on orange trees now. Robert
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Post by Adam Cotton on Sept 11, 2016 11:25:27 GMT -8
Good luck! Please post photos of the full grown larva and the pupa. I guess the larva in the photo is about 3rd or 4th instar, difficult to be sure as the photo is a little blurry.
Adam.
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robert61
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Post by robert61 on Sept 26, 2016 8:21:41 GMT -8
Pictures of the larger caterpillars. One of my 5 larger caterpillars was gone.... I found a hole in the net,it looked like it was burned with fire.... very strange.Cant believe that the sun was so hot.
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robert61
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Post by robert61 on Oct 5, 2016 1:38:02 GMT -8
the pupae of Papilio manlius Attachments:
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Post by timmsyrj on Oct 5, 2016 3:08:01 GMT -8
Congratulations, I presume these are destined for the boards, or are you tempted to try hand pairing them if you get both sexes.
Rich
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robert61
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Post by robert61 on Oct 5, 2016 5:04:09 GMT -8
I plan to try a Hand pairing but guess from the size of my 4 pupae that they are all same sex(probably males).... I still have few more caterpillars in different sizes, so that there will be probably in 3-4 weeks the last pupaes ready.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Oct 5, 2016 7:13:17 GMT -8
You cannot distinguish males and females by size or shape. I sex sometimes a hundred or more Papilio pupae each day and like to play a little guessing game with each pupa before I look under a hand lens. My guessing game is only accurate a little over 50% of the time, which means that you really can't tell the male and female pupae apart just by general appearance, at least for most species. If you remove the pupae from the twigs (first cut the silk girdle in front of the wing cases and then carefully prise up the silk at the base of the abdomen so that it is still attached to the pupa - you can then pin the pupa up from this when it is going to emerge. The butterfly will emerge just fine even though the pupa is hanging only from the abdomen, you don't need to make a new girdle) you can see what sex the pupae are very easily. Here's a sketch of how to distinguish male and female Lepidoptera pupae (appearance is a little variable from group to group but the basic difference is the same): Note the female has an extra pore visible in the first abdominal ring after the genital area. The first ring in a male is smooth without a pore. Adam.
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