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Post by jensb on Mar 1, 2014 2:32:20 GMT -8
Thnx gys
Very nice video
Greets jens
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Post by nomihoudai on Mar 1, 2014 4:43:15 GMT -8
Hi, thanks for the kind words and the interest in this species.
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Post by nomihoudai on Mar 1, 2014 7:35:42 GMT -8
Now I am back in Europe and slowly recovering from jet-lag. Here is a picture of one of the eggs of Philotes sonorensis sonorensis. The picture is dark and not that great but you can at least guess how the outer egg shell looks like. It has the typical Lycaenidae shape with a larger dent in the center of the egg, surrounded by small openings. The lower part of the egg seems darker on pretty much every picture so it could be that the capsid of the caterpillar has already formed partially.  At the McGuire centre I was also able to take pictures of the only other known subspecies of this species, Philotes sonorensis extinctis. They are of a much paler blue, they have been lost due to habitat destruction.     Here is an ex pupae female of the nominotypic subspecies which is as beautiful as they can get for comparison:   Enjoy. |
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Post by jensb on Mar 1, 2014 14:58:06 GMT -8
@claude,
If you are planning to have some live-stock next fall I would like to
already reserve some for the frankfurter insecten börse.
And thnx for the nice pictures of the ssp. extinctis
Greets jens
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Post by nomihoudai on Mar 12, 2014 1:09:04 GMT -8
Thanks for your interest Jens. As the whole process of breeding them is a process prone to mistakes and failures I cannot promise anything and won't do so. For the moment I am just happy and glad that some caterpillars must have made it into the next instar. They left their initial leaf mines and searched for new places on the plant to eat from. During this process they wander freely on the leaves and I used the opportunity to transfer some to a new plant by using a very fine paint brush for picking them up. The caterpillars live most of their time within the thick leaves of Dudleya and completely devastate them from the inside. So far I keep them on potted plants. The caterpillars seem fine with it and the plants also do look healthy. Nevertheless I will have to check and find new plants as I think that I underestimated the hunger of these little caterpillars. I will have to get in touch with botanical gardens.  One of the transferred caterpillars, I think it is L2 now. They don't have much of a color yet except for a dark head capsid.  They try to bury themselves as fast as possible into the next leaf.  Although leaf mining is a term that I have not seen yet in combination with Lycaenidae it perfectly describes their behaviour. They live for most of their time within the leaf itself and evacuate their droppings from the leaf mine entrance (upper left). Rgds Claude. |
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Post by jensb on Mar 12, 2014 8:05:01 GMT -8
Thnx for the description and nice pictures claude. I hope you will go on whit this live breeding dairy.
Greet jens
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Post by nomihoudai on Mar 22, 2014 6:54:36 GMT -8
The caterpillars continue to grow and have reached 7mm now. They still spend all their time within the leaves of the host plant but today I was able to spot one of time in search of a new leaf. This is the only time you actually get to see them from the outside. I took the opportunity and took a few more pictures. Attachment Deleted  close up of the head region. Attachment Deletedclose up of the rear of the caterpillar, somehow this does look like a fake head to me. |
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Post by nomad on Mar 22, 2014 7:47:03 GMT -8
Hi Claude
Your breeding is going very well, shown by your excellent photographs, where did you obtain further foodplants? I expect you will obtain a good series. Have Clark's larvae reached this stage.
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Post by nomihoudai on Mar 22, 2014 9:28:27 GMT -8
Thank you. I had 5 plants, so far they have eaten 2 of them. I found a shop in Germany that is supposed to have the plant. I ordered many of them and I am waiting for them to arrive by postal service.
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Post by nomihoudai on Mar 27, 2014 11:19:24 GMT -8
The plants arrived today, I hope the caterpillars will like them.  |
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Post by africaone on Mar 28, 2014 1:04:19 GMT -8
be careful of the chemicals  |
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Post by nomihoudai on Mar 28, 2014 1:34:47 GMT -8
I asked the company and they said that they didn't use any. This does make sense as these are succulents and there isn't really anything in Europe feeding on these. I still may be mistaken and then the breeding will fail, but without food it would have failed anyway. So far I can say that 1 caterpillar needs around 1 adult plant to make it to the stage of a butterfly. I had 1 plant for 3 caterpillars in the beginning.
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Post by homard on Apr 13, 2014 4:55:13 GMT -8
I am currently in California and having an amazing time with Clark and Bill. Today I took some pictures of my most favorite butterfly, if something like that actually exists, Philotes sonorensis. They are pretty difficult to photograph as they barely rest but luckily I came across this male which was feeding on different flowers. Enjoy: View AttachmentView AttachmentView AttachmentStunning! Lovely butterfly! It's associated in my mind with our Pseudophilotes schiffermuelleribut with some red on the wings, which alone seems as incredible combination in Lycaenidae! |
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Post by nomihoudai on Apr 13, 2014 14:58:22 GMT -8
Well it sure is related to Pseudophilotes and the Russian species is most likely to be the closest related species. Nevertheless I have the feeling that P. sonorensis is something very old that came early to the US. So in this case you can just say that it is as good related to any of the Pseudophilotes and Euphilotes species as they share a common ancestor. Last week it looked like the project could fail. The caterpillars turned very dull and dark brown. Luckily this was only their prepupae stage. They stay for several days in that stage and do not feed.  Some pics of one of the pupaes, I am still awaiting 2 caterpillars to stop feeding, these will probably/hopefully become females. The pupae measures 9 mm from tip to rear, they are tiny.    |
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Post by homard on Apr 14, 2014 4:03:02 GMT -8
Clark, great video! I hope you would not mind if I share it on FB? There are not so many vids of such kind there!  Well it sure is related to Pseudophilotes and the Russian species is most likely to be the closest related species. Nevertheless I have the feeling that P. sonorensis is something very old that came early to the US. So in this case you can just say that it is as good related to any of the Pseudophilotes and Euphilotes species as they share a common ancestor. Last week it looked like the project could fail. The caterpillars turned very dull and dark brown. Luckily this was only their prepupae stage. They stay for several days in that stage and do not feed. Great work! Wishing you all the success with them. Interesting, will the imago eclose now or the pupae should owerwinter? That would be a very long time (till the next spring) and they'd need a lot of care to prevent drying or moulding. I almost never was successful in this. PS. It was nice to see you in the Clark's vid |
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