Methods
Rearing
For rearing of larvae, I use an aquarium method, placing fresh LFP in bottles of water.
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aquariums on table used to rear indra larvae | 5th instars on Lomatium parryi in an aquarium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Various instars on Lomatium parryi in an
aquarium. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Water is replenished by refilling water bottles with a syringe. |
 |
Mature 5th instars are placed in lunch bags for pupation, and developing pupae are taped inside a small cardboard box for eclosion. Adults' wings are allowed to harden for 48 hours in a cool, dark environment.
| Lunch bags containing pre-pupation wandering larvae and emergence box containing a recently enclosed adult. |
 |
In order to get desert populations of Indra to emerge it is useful to artificially raise the humidity.
| Pupae in wet sand-filled aquarium to control humidity level. |
 |
I feel that if one wants to know the biology of a butterfly, they need to know the biology of its LFPs-- for example, when and where they grow, their soil requirements and other environmental requirements. To gain insights into the evolutionary history of a lepidopteran one should know the ranges and distributions of its LFPs, because they have likely played a major role in the evolutionary patterns of the species. With 12 Indra subspecies and others pending, I feel this is important. Lets now turn to the LFPs used by Indra Swallowtail butterflies.
