Back in the 1980s, like myself another friend also bred large numbers of this butterfly and he subjected pupae to various temperature change programmes as he was convinced that iole was a conditional, not genetic variation.. I held the opposite view ... a genetic variation. Another breeder who never experimented with temperatures, once had a perfect halved gynandromorph A.iris emerge in his breeding cages... One side the purple sheen of the male whilst the other, larger side, the brown female. He passed the specimen to another well known enthusiast who almost certainly still has it. I met him again last year after a period of three decades and regret not asking him about that.
He obtained some unusual variations as a result but, nothing approaching true iole although one or two were ... very unusual.
My long held ambition was to obtain a wild caught male iole and pair it with a captive bred virgin female...carefully breed the resulting f1 and f2 offspring for a few generations and see what appears to support my view that iole is a genetic, not a conditional variation.... or not.
I now have some very suitable trees and bushes well established over the years in my own little reserve. I prefer growing plants for rearing livestock.
It's probably a bit too late this season but not certainly so. Even a poor worn but otherwise vigorous iole could still be a fine breeding 'sire' . So failing that, next season July 2011, I will try and secure a healthy wild iole male myself and here some observers could provide help if and when one is observed somewhere in areas I rarely now visit.
Hmmmm .... Observing and respecting the feelings and mindsets of some regular contributors here, I welcome any comments on my plan and better still, if anyone would like to act as an observer and give me a 'heads up' should one be spotted, that will get us off to a flying start... hey, nearly a pun... or not...
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