Lycaena alciphron

[wolf]

This was my attempt last year to breed this species. I caught a female and she laid 58 eggs. These small buggers hibernate as L2, which is a pain to overwinter. I ended up with 50 hibernating catepillars. Unfortunately ALL died during hibernation, but i thought i'd share some pics of the early stages atleast. This is the 3rd time i try to breed a species that hibernate as young catepillars, and all attempts has failed. I appriciate any tips on how to hibernate young catepillars if anyone else has experience with it, right now im doing something wrong, and i need to find some kind of different hibernation setup. I fed them with Rumex acetosa.

Female feeding on honey water


Eggs


Newly hatched catepillar


L2

[hewi]

WEIDEMANN, H,J., 1995, in: "Tagfalter beobachten, bestimmen",
he writes when comparing alciphron with hippothoe:

"Die Unterschiede im Anspruch der Arten werden deutlich bei der Raupenüberwinterung
in Gefangenschaft: feucht oder gar naß gehalten, sterben die alciphron-Raupen; während 
Raupen von hippothoe unter solcher Feuchte nicht leiden."

(The differences in the demands of the species are clearly illustrated by the hibernating of the caterpillars in captivity: kept moist or even wet, the alciphron caterpillars die; while

caterpillars of hippothoe do not suffer from such humidity)


maybe this will help

[wolf]

Thanks hewi. I think my problem is that they have not gotten enough humidity and therefore dry out during winter