Dear Arundhati, thanks for sharing your experiences and the very valid tips.
Yes, the soft cloth (or tissue paper) sounds useful if the container is small.
Also, a dry twig set diagonally from the bottom of the box to the top helps the
butterfly to climb up after emergence and hang in order to expand and dry its
wings.
On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:55:55 +0530 wrote
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Hi Everyone and Peter!!
I too think the same and fully agree with Peter.
I would like to add into the rearing a butterfly process , plz correct me if i
am wrong.
After the individuals pupate , please keep a soft cloth , at the base of the
container which holds the pupae , coz the butterfly drops 2-3 drops of liquid
while emerging and some times its wings get wet in his own dropings. And the
wings remain folded forever.
My Castor could not fly coz of this :(.
Also talking about conservation , would like to share the incident.
At my office premises , i noticed a Lime plant with the common mormon cats.
There were so many cats , tat i gifted 2 to my frnds and reared 1.
I wanted to gather all of them as i thght atleast these individuals had 95%
chance to survive , but that was
practically not feasible.
Next day , when the site was revisited , to collect fresh leaves , i found no
cats,
and the security guard told me tat he had manually plucked them away :(....
But atleast 3 survived.
Similarly 100's of lily moth cats were seen dead one day in my office premises
, may be something was sprayed on them , as my cat also died on the next day
for no reason.
Arundhati...
--- On Fri, 8/13/10, satyendra tiwari wrote:
From: satyendra tiwari
Subject: Re: Re: [ButterflyIndia] Black Pearl Eggs
To: [email protected]
Date: Friday, August 13, 2010, 3:22 AM
i fully agree with Peter. Since last few years we dont see as many
caterpillars and butterflies in our garden as we use to do as this is only
because the number of predators has increased. Birds feeds on Larvae and adults
butterflies. So protecting them inbreeding stage is actually helping them.
satyendra K.Tiwari
Wildlife Photographer, Naturalist & Tour Leader
H.No 129, P.O.Tala. Distt Umaria M.P. India
Pin code 484-661
Tel. No. 07627-265309 day time phone only
--- On Thu, 12/8/10, Peter Smetacek wrote:
From: Peter Smetacek
Subject: Re: Re: [ButterflyIndia] Black Pearl Eggs
To: [email protected]
Date: Thursday, 12 August, 2010, 5:22 PM
Janaki, breeding the eggs will not disturb them, in fact, you will protect them
from various parasites. If you feel that strongly about not disturbing nature,
then you can release the majority of what you breed in the wild, keeping,
naturally a few voucher specimens.
You need no expertise to breed insects: take a clean, deep plastic box, a
child's tiffin box or best, a bread box will do. Place the leaf with eggs in
the box and cover the box with an old chunni with a rubber band around the
edges of the box. Wait until the larvae emerge. Thereafter, supply them with
fresh leaves when needed, everyday or every 2 days.Clean the box as for any
little children.
Eventually they will pupate and then there is another period of waiting. Then,
one day, the chappie will emerge and you will have added your brick to the
edifice of Science..... .if you hae any questions, etc., please feel free to
ask. That's what this forum is all about!
On Thu, 12
Aug 2010 16:53:05 +0530 wrote
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Thanks Peter for your responses.
Re: Breeding of the black pearl eggs, I am afraid I found them in the wild, and
I feel that to disturb what is naturally occuring is not quite ok (though,
often we do disturb inadvertently) , especially when I do not have the
resources/expertise to take care of what comes out, and also allow what is
going to come out- for eg., maintaining the required ambient temperature for
the eggs to mature and hatch!
But I will check on the progress, the next time I visit the area!
Janaki Turaga
>
>--- On Tue, 8/10/10, Peter Smetacek wrote:
>
>From: Peter Smetacek
>Subject: Re: [ButterflyIndia] Black Pearl Eggs
>To: ButterflyIndia@ yahoogroups. com
>Date: Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 11:38 PM
>
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Why don't you breed them and see what comes out?
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>On Tue, 10 Aug 2010
22:58:52 +0530 wrote
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>Hi all,
>I found these eggs-which looked like a cluster of black pearls, on the leaf of
>Calotropis procera plant.
>Would appreciate if someone could id them.
>Thanks
>Janaki Turaga
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Enjoy
