Vlindertjes.eu

Introduction

During my childhood, it gave me lots of pleasure searching for caterpillars. The caterpillars were taken home to grow them up so they could pupate, the pupae eventually developed to butterflies or moths, a great experience how different larvae developed. As a child, I learned to know a lot of plants and butterflies that way.

The disadvantage of searching for caterpillars, is that the nearly mature caterpillars can easily be found but the smaller ones are quickly overlooked. Large caterpillars are often inhabited by parasites such as parasitic wasps and flies. Small and mature caterpillars of the same species can look very different, and that sparked my curiosity. A just hatched larva is often referred to as L1 larva, after the first molt, the caterpillar will turn in a L2 larva and so on. Most larvae will stop at L5 and some species will grow out to L6 larvae before the caterpillar pupates. If I take the example of the Indian Moon moth (Actias selene), the larva will be bright orange with a black ring in the middle covering four segments. After the first molt and thus L2, its compete orange and it's black tubercles become smaller in proportion as the caterpillar grows. After the second moult (L3), the larva is bright green with orange and yellow tubercles. This color will stay till the caterpillar turns in to pupa. Breeding lepidopterans though my eyes, means experiencing the entire cycle from egg to egg and all stages in between. To make that possible, one condition is that the butterflies mate and lay fertilized eggs again.

One of the things you will encounter breeding lepidopterans are the seasons. During late spring and summer, breeding is no problem but during autumn and winter, breeding will not work with native butterflies in most cases. In the moderate climate zones, lepidopterans will hibernate during the winter season. Depending on the species, hibernation will take place as egg, caterpillar, pupa or adult. A winter rest is often necessary and without this could period, the egg or pupa will not emerge and die. Another problem is that most of the host plants don't have leaves during winter, there is no food available for the larvae or lepidopterans.

If you like to breed lepidopterans during the winter months, there is nearly no other option than breeding tropical and subtropical moths or butterflies. That still doesn't cover the food problem, they will have to eat evergreen host plants like Privet, Cherry Laurel, Bramble and evergreen oak. Feeding with indoor plants is possible but usually quite expensive, small species and in limited numbers is worth considering. Another way is to feed artificial food, I don't have any experience with that and the number of species that will accept it are limited.

On the following pages I will try to explain the treatment of egg, caterpillar, pupa and lepidopteran as well as the housing and materials that I use breeding moths. There are many ways to get good results but more to destroy a breed. It is not my intention to tell you how to breed moths and butterflies but rather an explanation of how I do it myself, this is mainly based on own experience and tips from other breeders.