mooks
New Aurelian
Posts: 31
Country: U.K.
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Post by mooks on Mar 29, 2016 16:30:49 GMT
Hi all here's a pic of a few Automeris io lillith larvae from the 90s that l reared on willow.
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Post by wollastoni on Mar 29, 2016 16:31:24 GMT
Wow, nice babies !
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mooks
New Aurelian
Posts: 31
Country: U.K.
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Post by mooks on Mar 29, 2016 17:33:17 GMT
Yeah they were m8 was told mangrove was there only foodplant but it was willow just like normal io that they took. Here's the adults not a lot of difference to normal io..
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Post by trehopr1 on Mar 30, 2016 16:43:22 GMT
Mooks, with you being an experienced breeder of Saturniidae I would expect that you must have quite the "knockout" collection of them. I do so look forward to you posting some pictures of them whenever possible. I myself have never really bred anything but, saturniids have a soft spot in my heart. I have acquired some quite nice examples of Cecropia,Polyphemus,Luna,and Promethea which hatched from cocoons I found (over the years). So this group has endeared itself to me. What I have always found peculiar about saturniid "pinned" specimens is that they never really look all that good UNLESS they have been fresh mounted and/or bred ! I would have to say that in most personal collections I've seen I can usually only find a very few beauties amongst whatever someone has. Everything else just "looks" like it was received papered and then mounted. These papered saturniids oftentimes have compressed bodies (laterally) and their hairy bodies seem to lack the "fluff" of fresh mounted. I love the group generally but, I only have an eye for the best in trading or purchasing with others. So naturally my holdings are small in this group. Only once did I come across a collector with a stunning collection of this group and he admitted to knowing a breeder over the years whom he had purchased much of his material from.
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mooks
New Aurelian
Posts: 31
Country: U.K.
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Post by mooks on Mar 30, 2016 20:24:46 GMT
Totally agree bred specimens are far superior but l have had a disaster museum beetles have got into my store boxes 60 specimens from the 90s destroyed only have 20 left ..gutted !! Have some Luna Promethea advena and calletta cocoons for this year's breeding. So hope to have a few for setting have some io larvae coming this weekend plus l have some pernyi ova which is always a pleasure to rear.
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Post by trehopr1 on Mar 31, 2016 7:06:00 GMT
Good heavens ! ! Disaster indeed.... So very sorry to hear of such a loss. Do hope you can start again and regain something of what you once had.
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