luna larva color, behavior, and diapause

Liz Day beebuzz at kiva.net
Thu Aug 23 21:15:37 EDT 2001


According to the saturniid book by Tuskes et al, luna moth caterpillars 
turn from
green to brown just before they pupate.  I think (?) this is supposed to
camouflage them while they walk down the tree and into the leaf litter on
the ground.   Of the luna larvae I am caring for, only a few are doing
this.  2 or 3 of them have turned brown and exhibited the wandering
behavior; the others that pupated remained green and spun right in the
leaves they were eating.

I am wondering if this is correlated with whether the pupae will
diapause.  Someone else was caring for them for awhile, and although I told
him to keep them dark at night, this did not always happen.  I am guessing
that the larvae that stayed green got confused, think they are a spring
brood, and will emerge this fall, while those that turned brown are
preparing to hibernate.  (Perhaps those two happened to be near the bottom
of the piles of leaves and thus were shaded at night.)

Any thoughts?

Liz

Also, the same book claims (page 10, last paragraph), that even if the
larva was exposed to long daylengths, it can be forced to diapause by
keeping the pupa on a short daylength.    Anyone ever experienced this?

-------------------------------------------------------------
Liz Day
Indianapolis, Indiana, central USA  (40 N, ~86 W)
Home of budgerigar Tweeter and the beautiful pink inchworm (Eupithecia
miserulata).
USDA zone 5b.  Winters ~20F, summers ~85F.  Formerly temperate deciduous
forest.
daylight at kiva.net
www.kiva.net/~daylight
-------------------------------------------------------------


 
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