Post by irisscientist on Feb 27, 2018 21:00:14 GMT
Dear all,
Many apologies for posting this thread here, but was hoping it might please receive a little more attention. As most of you will know I am conducting research on butterflies belonging to family Apaturinae (the Emperors). As part of this work however I am also exploring certain aspects of the biology of Nymphalis antiopa, which if you are unaware has 2 distinct populations based both in the USA and the other in central Europe. Unlike the European populations (which do not breed in captivity and only have a single generation per year), the USA populations happily breed in captivity and have up to 4 generations per year. I have recently analysed the wing compounds of these 2 different populations via GC-MS and have identified that the US populations appear to possess an additional (presumed) contact pheromone compound (n-Tetracosane), which is comparable to many other similar pheromone compounds that I have identified in other Nymphalidae species.
My reason for writing here however is because I would now like to try synthetic application of this (n-Tetracosane), compound onto the wings of EU specimens in order to ascertain if this makes any difference in captive breeding or generation numbers in the EU specimens? Unfortunately however, this species are not native to UK and due to their lack of captive breeding opportunities, are rarely (if ever) possible to acquire here in the UK. I wondered therefore if any of you, know or have any other EU entomology contacts who might please have any opportunities to acquire any diapausing adults of this species, or alternatively might have access to any early season pupae in which we might please be able to test your current hypothesis during the coming 2018 season?
Many thanks in advance for any/all assistance.
I was unable to post the photo to the board (said the limit was full), so here is a link to the photo:
photos.app.goo.gl/PFKmfb3Mi62SyAyA3
Mark
Many apologies for posting this thread here, but was hoping it might please receive a little more attention. As most of you will know I am conducting research on butterflies belonging to family Apaturinae (the Emperors). As part of this work however I am also exploring certain aspects of the biology of Nymphalis antiopa, which if you are unaware has 2 distinct populations based both in the USA and the other in central Europe. Unlike the European populations (which do not breed in captivity and only have a single generation per year), the USA populations happily breed in captivity and have up to 4 generations per year. I have recently analysed the wing compounds of these 2 different populations via GC-MS and have identified that the US populations appear to possess an additional (presumed) contact pheromone compound (n-Tetracosane), which is comparable to many other similar pheromone compounds that I have identified in other Nymphalidae species.
My reason for writing here however is because I would now like to try synthetic application of this (n-Tetracosane), compound onto the wings of EU specimens in order to ascertain if this makes any difference in captive breeding or generation numbers in the EU specimens? Unfortunately however, this species are not native to UK and due to their lack of captive breeding opportunities, are rarely (if ever) possible to acquire here in the UK. I wondered therefore if any of you, know or have any other EU entomology contacts who might please have any opportunities to acquire any diapausing adults of this species, or alternatively might have access to any early season pupae in which we might please be able to test your current hypothesis during the coming 2018 season?
Many thanks in advance for any/all assistance.
I was unable to post the photo to the board (said the limit was full), so here is a link to the photo:
photos.app.goo.gl/PFKmfb3Mi62SyAyA3
Mark