how do they do it? seeing larvae

[Chris J. Durden]

I think you need a room-sized insectary in sunlight for part of the day 
with potted saplings of a selection of candidate larval foodplants. I have 
not built mine yet.
.............Chris Durden

At 03:15 PM 9/2/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Actually, I've wondered about that too.  Does anyone know how one can
>induce a female tiger swallowtail to lay eggs in captivity?
>
>Peace,
>Xi Wang
>
>Liz Day wrote:
> >
> > Just returned from a "collecting" trip (really an "oh my, looky at that!")
> > trip, in which I identified some larvae using the Caterpillars of Eastern
> > Forests book.
> >
> > This book makes me wonder:   Just how did the authors, or anyone else,
> > obtain some of these larvae?
> >
> > For instance, I have never seen a Tiger Swallowtail larva, and of most
> > sphinx moths, and have no idea how I could do so (besides buying
> > them).   The female TS won't lay eggs in a paper bag like a moth.  Some
> > butterflies you can follow her and pick up the eggs, but I never see TS
> > engaged in egg-laying,  just flying rapidly along way up in the trees
> > (usually I can't even keep them in view very long).   With cherry and other
> > host trees, 99% of the plant is out of reach, so I don't think searching
> > for larvae would work well, unless you could do it from a cherry
> > picker.  So how the heck do people ever see this caterpillar, other than by
> > pure chance?
> >
> > Same question, for those kinds of moths that won't lay eggs in a paper bag,
> > and whose larvae feed up in trees.    I'm having caterpillar envy!
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Liz Day
> > Indianapolis, Indiana, central USA
> > daylight at kiva.net
> >
> > Larvae seen in Posey Co., extreme SW Indiana:
> > monarch on that vining milkweed
> > silver-spotted skipper (egg, too)
> > viceroy
> > question mark
> > buckeye (chrysalis too)
> > painted lady (??)
> > unknown lycaenid on wingstem attended by ants
> > smeared dagger moth (?) on polygonum
> > Virginia bear arctiid moth (unbelievably abundant)
> > poplar tentmaker prominent moth (defoliating everything in sight)
> > 2 different large twig-mimicking inchworms on sandbar willow
> >
> > At New Harmony, IN, across from the Atheneum, is a field with apple trees
> > and oodles of 6 or 7 kinds of nymphalids feeding on the rotting fruit
> > including tawny emperor.   These butterflies were easy to pick up on your
> > finger. Nearby a garden with balsam is loaded with pipevine swallowtails.
> >
> > At Mt. Vernon, IN, I had a dramatic look at a pink-spotted sphinx moth
> > drinking from evening primrose around midnight after a rain.  Its eyes
> > blazed like neon rubies in my flashlight beam through 20 feet of fog and
> > mist.  It flew and hovered with the tongue hanging out like an elephant's
> > trunk.  This tongue must have been 3-4" long; the moth barely needed to
> > approach to reach the masses of flowers, which smelled faintly like
> > honeysuckle.  Amazing.
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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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