Cold Snap

Well we had one last cocoon to open, but it's been cold and rainy the last couple of days. I don't know if the last one is going to open or not. The caterpillars all went into cocoons within a day of eachother (2 on one day and 2 on the next). It is possible that the last one might take a little longer, but I know they are sensitive to temperature. Cross our fingers this one makes it. If it doesn't make it this may be my last post for awhile. I can't pin the bugs I've got untill I get pins and I won't be able to collect anymore bugs untill it starts warming up again. I know it's just barely getting cold but I already can't wait for it to get warm again. I hate the cold. Plus, the other cocoons from the other kinds of caterpillars will begin opening in the spring.

Memory issues

This post is just so I remember the important collection detail on my butterflies for pinning them. The Monarch caterpillars were found in the alley behind our house on approximately Sept 21. They went to cocoon stage on Sept 26 and emerged Oct 13 and were frozen the same day.

It's a girl

Had another monarch hatch today this one was a girl.... Unfortunately I didn't remember to take pictures of this one for the blog before I froze it. One more left to hatch, but now that I have one boy and one girl, no matter what this one is it will get to make the Mexico trip. (Barring any hungry birds along the way LOL) If it is a girl though I'll try to remember to take a pic of it so you can see the difference between a boy and girl.

Bug Box

I got my bug box built last night... (well those of you who really know who I am know I had some help) Anywho I took an old wooden framed window that still had good glass in it added four 1"x 4"s on the sides for a see through lid. For the bottom part of the box I simply attached four more 1"x 4"s to a piece of plywood. Got all the Cracks and crevasses filled with caulking and started painting it last night. My (helper) was mixing some paint for me so I had the color I wanted and now has green hands to show for it... LOL.

Still need finish painting it. I already have the background paper cut. Actually I'm using some picture matte board. All I need now is some styrofoam or cork board to finish the box. The next and last things I need to put my bugs in the box is the pins (because you can't use sowing pins) and some naphthalene crystals (also known as moth balls).

Ok now I have to ramble for just a minute. The web site being used to learn how to make this bug collection (http://entomology.unl.edu/tmh/ent115/labs/collecting.htm) is where I got the name naphthalene crystals from. Why couldn't they just plainly say throw some moth balls in the box to keep the bugs out?... NOOOOO they've got to use the chemical name of it so that I'm left sitting here wonder what in the world it is, where I'm going to get it and is it going to be safe around children and pets. OK done rambling.

Caught a Whopper

I was outside last night just after dark with my front porch light on and this huge thing flew past me and landed on the house just under the light bulb. It was a moth. This thing was twice as big as the butterfly that is on my hand in the last post. The board this thing is sitting on is a 1"x 4". Just to give you an idea of how big this one is.

It took a while as there are hundreds of thousands of moths, but I was lucky enough to find the species of moth I have to identify. Are you ready for this...... right now in my freezer is a Black Witch or it's scientific name of Ascalapha Odorata. This particular specimen is a female. You can tell by the white line crossing all four wings. The male has a dark line.

A tidbit of info from Wikipedia... The noctuid moth Ascalapha odorata bears the common name Black Witch. It is a harbinger of death in Mexican and Caribbean folklore. In Spanish it is known as "Mariposa de la muerte" (Mexico & Costa Rica)[1], or "Pirpinto de la Yeta" (Argentina); in Nahuatl (Mexico) it is "Miquipapalotl" or "Tepanpapalotl" (miqui = death, black + papalotl = moth);

It's a Boy!

It finally happened. Yesterday afternoon I was strolling past the garage where I keep the cocoons and saw something orange fluttering around in one of the boxes. Yippeeeee! One of them hatched or came out or emerged... ok whatever the technical term for that is... it did it. Upon closer inspection I found that it's a boy. The Monarch butterfly is easy to tell if it's a male or female. The male has a black dot on each of it's hind wings. These are it's sent glands (where he puts his pheromone into the air for the ladys to smell).

So anyway I went to cut him a piece of an orange and when I came back a second one had errupted from it's cocoon. His wings were still all crumpled up and he was hanging from the cocoon still. When his wings were opened up all the way we found he was male too. Since we had two males we froze one and set the other free to join all the other monarch butterflies in sunny Mexico... wish I could go with him for a visit.

It's Almost here

The very first Monarch caterpillar that went to cocoon (the one I found at church on the bush out front) is about to come out of it's cocoon. I'd put a picture up but the net it's under makes it difficult to get a picture. I was thinking when I first saw the cocoons that they were green and turned clear just before it came out. I have a new theory though. I believe that the cocoon is always clear and the green stuff is the food (AKA digested leaves) that sustains the monarch while it is inside. Kinda like the white of a chicken egg feeds the chick while it is growing inside the shell. Hopefully we will get some pictures of it when it comes out in the next day or two.

New cocoon

I happend again today. This time it was one of the fuzzy black ones (Arctia caja). It didn't surprise me though, because that habitat had been escaped from several times. Usually because my sister feed them and didn't get the net closed right.

The Arctia caja's cocoon is very similar to the Euchaetes egles in the it is charcoal gray and furry like mold. However the Arctia caja cocoon is about three times the size of the Euastes egle. You can only see the ends of the cocoon because it wrapped itself up in the leaf. Kinda like it's snuggling in for the winter. According to Wikipedia it won't hatch untill next summer.

Euchaetes egle

Today I went to clean out the jar I have my Euchaetes egles in and found I was missing one of them. ....How could that happen? They are in a glass mason jar and I have old style metal screen under the ring. There is no way out. Then I found a fuzzy little back lump. One of them has made it's cocoon. I wonder how long it will be untill it hatches.

Well I looked it up on Wikipedia and it seems it will be after the winter when it hatches.

Side note: I was looking at my first Monarch cocoon it looks like it's turning black. I hope this is just part of the process. I know that when they are about to hatch it is clear. Maybe this happens splotchy rather than all over slowly.