Rearing _N. antiopa_

[Kenelm Philip]

	Robert Thorn inquired about rearing Mourning Cloaks. About 20
years ago, I reared over 300 of these from egg to adult and took a number
of them through a Fairbanks winter outdoors as part of an investigation
into the cryoprotection methods used by adult hibernators in Alaska.
The rearing was simple--one female caught in May was caged with a willow
branch, and deposited over 300 eggs. The branch was placed in a _large_
screen cage indoors, and the larvae were supplied with willow (no mean
task by the last instar--enough leafy twigs to fill the cage were eaten
in under half a day). Some of the larvae were removed to an outdoor cage
on the university campus, the others pupated in the original cage. Over
300 adults emerged.
	Adults were carried through the winter by being placed individually
in short sections of 2x4 with a large hole in each--the open ends of the
hole were covered with fiberglass screen--and left in the back yard where
they would be covered with snow but not drowned during breakup.

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu