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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 12, 2011 4:44:06 GMT -8
I can't give you much, but it's a Sphecid wasp of some type. Sphecidae (now Sphecidae and a few other families split from the former family) are not like the rest of the Vespidae which are aggressive communal nesters (Vespula, Polistes, etc.), this is the kind that is cleaning your garden of pests and so on. It might be in the genus Sphex (digger wasps) but I'm not a wasp aficionado either, although I do like them generally as they are usually nice beneficial insects that come in a range of colors and forms. Sphecinae I think are just the thread-waisted wasps anymore, I'm not sure how the rest of the former families' taxon are classified. But it's definitely a non-social wasp, not the swarm-and-bite kind.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 11, 2011 7:05:30 GMT -8
This is true. I can see the reverse though- if our trade is open to everyone, so should be theirs. Otherwise we have things like Brazil where everything is tit for tat. I like the idea of outrageous shipping prices or handling costs for things destined to Japan as that is a perfectly acceptable and legal way to compensate for exclusion from their market. If you don't like how things work, let Japan be the model and make your own market exclusive reciprocally.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 11, 2011 6:54:45 GMT -8
lol, same thought at same time.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 11, 2011 6:54:19 GMT -8
Dill is a close relative of fennel, maybe you that? Might work. Things that are fed parsley elsewhere eat fennel here so the reverse might be true. Often the herbs shipped into the local markets have larvae of swallowtail on them, I see a lot of families buying a plant on purpose so they can raise the caterpillar (Black Swallowtail here). Makes me laugh, they have no idea how expensive that one caterpillar will become until it demolishes the entire $3-4 herb pot overnight and then is wandering around looking for more. So that is one consideration if using herbs- are they pre-grown to enough stature that you can support more than a single caterpillar or are they going to be something you have to buy everyday to keep up with their appetites. Foeniculum vulgare gets fairly large here and is permanent (dill does in the northern part of the country) so it is usually a better option than parsley here, but you have to have a reasonably old plant. Might be that carrot or something would work as well, but again these are small herbaceous plants so numbers would be important. Maybe someone else knows something bigger that can be used, I do not.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 10, 2011 7:42:37 GMT -8
Hardcore business demands extreme professionalism. Would love to see such a widespread interest everywhere else, I wonder why such a fascination with insects in Japan that such a community can thrive to that extent.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 10, 2011 5:02:07 GMT -8
Often that aromatic quality is a deterrent for mammals and things with better senses of smell (in the classical sense). Reptiles and birds are frequently immune for lack of receptors, if any of the aromatic oils are even sequestered by this beetle which may not be the case as well. Might serve as protection from rodents and other smaller mammalian foragers.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 7, 2011 7:11:19 GMT -8
I can't comment on Copaxa specifically, but if you treat them like lunas as seen on the great Bill Oehlke's website you should be just fine except that maenas might not diapause and I would be much more careful about keeping the temps reasonably high. I think maenas is mostly tropical.
When I rear Sats I move them into something else as soon as they are not able to crawl through screening which I use to detain them in their respective containers so the air circulates better. You don't want to see humidity building up on the walls and roof of the tupperware, it will just encourage infection. Also space them out well, just a few per box. I rear in big containers with weed cloth covering the opening (you can trap smaller caterpillars this way compared to a lot of screen, but any breathable material works fine I'm sure) and use these little pint containers that gelatto came in as a resevoir for water to put the cut stems in. I punch a small hole the top and put in the stem of the host and screw the lid back on. Make sure the whole is only big enough for the stems and not for stems+caterpillar or you will soon find all of the caterpillars have drowned themselves. I have no idea why they are so suicidal around water, but they are. Probably Bill can comment further in this regard.
Timing depends on species, temperature, suitable host, etc. Hard to say exactly but I would guess out of the 20 species of Sat or so that I have reared personally it averages about 6 weeks from ova to pupae at about 80 degrees. Some are longer, for me Ceratocampinae are slower. Things raised over cool season also take longer and are often a little bigger for me. On the other hand, I reared on an alternate host plant for one species that wasn't all that happy on it and they went from ova to ova in one month. It would have been impressive but the adults were about half the size of a normal adult. They were really tiny, poor little guys were clearly unhappy with the host. I won't try those again, lol.
Big thing is to space them out well, keep everything immaculate and well circulated. Some people even bleach or acid wash (vinegar dilution) the leaves lightly, rinse and dry them before using to cut down on microscopic pathogens. This would be something to consider if you have something valuable or sensitive. This is standard operating procedure at the Lepidopteran research center here. Considering they are foreign to you, it might be worth it as there could be vectors that are particularly harmful given that they are out of their normal range. Sort of the same idea as when the European conquistadors came to the new world and gave all the natives smallpox.
My best advice is to use Bill's info, I have had great success using it as my model. He has an immeasurable breadth of experience with Sats.
Good luck, love to hear what your results are!
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 7, 2011 6:49:52 GMT -8
Ah ha, I see. They look like they are right on the backing in the picture, elevating them make sense. I wonder if acedification has any effect on them anyway. I've seen a fair number of specimens with non-archival labels that have turned golden brown and started to flake but the specimens looked fine. Maybe it doesn't bother them anyway. Good idea to incorporate moth balls into the adherent media, very clever.
Again, really nice display. And again, your daughter is really really cute. So precocious in that picture in the other thread, she reminds me a bit of my sister when she was that age- digging in the river mud and all.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 7, 2011 6:43:23 GMT -8
Wow, nice work! Impressive specimens indeed. I have Corydalus cornutus from Michigan which is not nearly as scary looking.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 6, 2011 8:00:43 GMT -8
Ooooooh, really pretty.
Just a question, but do you worry about gradual acedifying of some of the components, like the beach mat? I think it wouldn't make a difference in terms of aesthetics for color of the mat as it wouldn't change much if at all but I don't know anything about how the specimens handle it. I have been hesitant to use non-archival materials around butterflies because I don't know better one way or the other so I just avoid thus far. Do you have any insight into this winged?
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 6, 2011 7:50:11 GMT -8
A loss for the world, he was a great man and pioneer as well as administrator of a fantastic business model. I hope his desires and dreams and pursued by subsequent generations to come.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 6, 2011 4:06:14 GMT -8
Yes, vinegaroon and Calosoma are probably the stinkiest things around here. Some phasmids have kind of a strange odor too I think. But considering it was in a garage in the dark, I'm going with a cockroach. I thought wood roach immediately as well. Funny odor that isn't altogether nasty and likely to be in a dark place. Plus doesn't it seem that only "gross" bugs crawl on you in your home? Rarely a butterfly will land on you if you are really sweaty and out in the field, but at home it's always a spider or a roach or something else most creepy. I would say expect the worst
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 6, 2011 4:02:37 GMT -8
Of course its A1, it's only a few years old after all.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 6, 2011 3:59:50 GMT -8
Lol, very very cute. You must be proud.
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Post by starlightcriminal on Oct 6, 2011 3:58:54 GMT -8
Classic Florida indeed, nice gator shot.
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