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Post by irisscientist on Apr 7, 2015 10:02:40 GMT
Hi all, Are there any people in the UK who have any potted Celtis sinensis plants that I might please be able to borrow for the 2015 season in order to help rear some recently received Sasakia charonda larvae? If so, please drop me a PM. Although this plant is a quite an invasive pest in some countries (i.e. Japan and Australia) reasonable sized plants are actually very hard to locate here in the UK. I look forward to hearing from you. Continued regards, Mark
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Post by wollastoni on Apr 7, 2015 10:06:58 GMT
Welcome to the Forum, Mark ! I hope our British members will be able to help you !
And it would be a pleasure to see some pictures of your Sasakia rearing on the forum.
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Post by irisscientist on May 5, 2015 18:40:06 GMT
I was asked to post some update pictures of the maturing Sasakia charonda larvae. Many of the larvae have now shed into their green summer colouration. Those that haven't are however soon expected to do so. The most advanced larvae (bottom image below) will also soon shed into its 5th instar.
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Post by nomad on May 6, 2015 5:55:11 GMT
I am pleased that you found the plants to rear your larvae on, they look to be doing very well. Are you breeding this species for your studies. I know you are an Apatura and the allied genus specialist/ scientist. On another note, excuse the pun, it would be interesting to have your views on Heslop's book ' Notes and views of the Purple Emperor'. Although written in a different era and Heslop was not really an ecologist, Heslop apart from Deny's Watkins Pichard of BB fame, seem to have bred more Apatura iris that anyone else therefore they were confirmed specialists on the subject. As you know, the reason everyone goes to Fermyn Woods today where the emperor in good seasons is common, is because of the latter's efforts.
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Post by irisscientist on May 6, 2015 9:23:00 GMT
Nomad, The ultimate aim of the Sasakia is not necessarily to breed them, rather to perform various tests on the adult males and females in order to ascertain if the data collected on the Apatura's is equally applicable to other iridescent members of the Apaturinae. Not withstanding this however, if sufficient numbers of males and females happen to eclose at appropriate timings, pairings may well be attempted, although as said this is certainly not the ultimate purpose for rearing this species. With regards to Heslop (and his book, which I have and even now sometimes refer back too), I have mixed feelings. Although Heslop was a good Naturalist, he was certainly not a scientist. He certainly had devotion to his subject matter and asked many of the right (i.e important) questions, many of which I am still trying to confirm the answers to today. As you correctly said, this was however a different era and Entomological science has significantly moved-on since his time. Information is now readily available at our finger tips from across/around the globe, something which would have simply been unimaginable during Heslop's lifetime. In saying the above however, an absence of an analytical mind-set meant that Heslop did however miss some of the simpler data which would have easily been available to him, even during his lifetime. As an example he tried to sex the pupae of A.iris using size and pupal dimensions. As an experienced Lepidopterist I am sure that Heslop would have been aware of the differences in male and female hawk moth pupae. With a simple microscope (low powered), the application of such knowledge would have consequently easily enabled him to accurately sex his A.iris pupae (see below) as well as almost all other Lepidoptera pupae. As an experienced A.iris breeder Heslop (as with all subsequent A.iris breeders) must have also noticed the presence of white spots on the backs of certain 5th instar A.iris larvae. Asking and further exploring this simple question would have subsequently enabled Heslop to confirm that it was also possible to sex the mature larvae of these species (again see below). These are just two simple examples. If all of our 'modern' equipment had however been equally available during Heslop's lifetime, I highly suspect that Heslop would have probably eventually come to many of the same conclusions that are currently evolving from my project work. This is however just my interpretation of his work and methodology with A.iris. Mark
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Post by wollastoni on May 6, 2015 20:16:35 GMT
Splendid pictures ! Those Sasakia caterpillars are wonderful !
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Post by nomad on May 6, 2015 20:27:41 GMT
I agree, an informative post with very nice images.
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Post by irisscientist on May 11, 2015 9:41:40 GMT
Further images of the maturing Sasakia charonda larvae:
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Post by wollastoni on May 11, 2015 10:02:15 GMT
What an impressive mimicry. Must be very hard to find in the wild !
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Post by irisscientist on Jun 1, 2015 16:07:17 GMT
First Sasakia charonda pupae: Consistent with the details for the Apatura pupal sexing (see posts above), this specimen appears to be male:
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jun 1, 2015 18:09:46 GMT
Yes that is a male pupa, but the arrow should really be pointing just below, at segment 8 which does not have the female pore.
Adam.
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Post by irisscientist on Jun 1, 2015 18:18:28 GMT
Yes Adam. It was just something I did very quickly in Photoshop. As with the earlier Apatura images I prepared (see above), the male features are restricted only to segment 9, whilst any females features would be contiguous through 8 and 9.
Mark
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jun 1, 2015 20:37:57 GMT
No problem Mark, I just wanted to make sure readers understood the difference, and why this is a male. It certainly wasn't a criticism of you. It is interesting how narrow segment 8 is in the pupa of these butterflies.
Adam.
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Post by irisscientist on Jun 13, 2015 14:44:39 GMT
First (male) Sasakia charonda eclosed today. What a magnificent insect. As most of the testing will be done on the female specimens, this male should have a rather peaceful and honored existence. Apologies that I was unable to a capture the beauty of the male better, but he simply refused to keep still, well at least with his wings open that is!
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Post by irisscientist on Jul 1, 2015 19:23:13 GMT
A totally unexpected surprise. Yesterday morning I awoke to find an extremely rare (and special) vibrant blue, aberrant form of the male Sasakia charonda. These have resulted from the extensive breeding work on this species by the breeder. Lost for words...WOW! For references please see this paper abstract: ci.nii.ac.jp/nrid/9000257185317
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