Post by bluemoth on Sept 4, 2012 13:02:03 GMT -8
Well this study started when young hatching larva started shoeing up in older broods I was rearing. I would pick extra leaves and put them in the regular food refrigerator. Then take them out as needed by my larva. I found a few young larva that were not part of my brood. Aw haw!!! The eggs on the leaves were being delayed in development by the cold temperature of the refrigerator. To prove this I took some fresh layed eggs and put them in the refrigerator for 9 days. Then took them out. The eggs that were alive looked good and seemed to be developing. This morning I saw the tiny black hairs starting to develop in some of the eggs. Yes there is life!!!! Now the next part of the study is how long can the Buckeye eggs be left in the refrigerator be for becoming unviable? I will continue to do more testing to determin this. Ultimately this will help many of us who rear Buckeyes to introduce new gene stock right when we need to. A good question is will this work with other butterfly eggs and moth eggs. At this time I will leave this open for research by other folks.
