Techniques for Caring for Immatures
This subsection provides an enormous amount of information provided through slide presentations on how to take care of eggs, caterpillars and pupae. This is broken down into the disciplines below:
- How to care for and hatch eggs? (ova)
- How to care for caterpillars? (larvae)
- How can you tell and what do you do when a larva has finished feeding and is ready to form a chrysalis?
- How do you care for pupae? Some pupae hibernate; others emerge immediately.
- How do you emerge butterflies?
- How do you care for eggs, caterpillars, or pupae that hibernate through the winter or spend the dry season in dormancy?
- Butterflies hibernate (diapause) in one stage or another. Are there techniques you can perform to avoid diapause and obtain live adults earlier rather than later?
- Post Hibernation Strategies: Once your hibernating egg, larva, or pupa has gone through
diapause, what do you need to do to ensure that your
- Hibernating egg hatches
- Post-diapause larva resumes feeding
- Mature larva pupates
- Pupa breaks diapause and emerges
- Disease Prevention: The biggest enemies to caterpillars in the field are parasites and predators. Their biggest enemies in the lab are pathogens--viruses and bacteria. What techniques should you employ to avoid getting your caterpillars sick?
