Tuts wrote:
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By all accounts trying to pair captive PE is a pretty gruesome affair which can involve mutilating the insects to get them to stay paired
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Then you have been viewing the wrong accounts. Captive paired Apaturinae stay together for 1.75 to 2.5 hours before seperating. Seperation before that time is rare and usually results in a failure to the transfer of the male's spermatophore. It is easy to confirm a successful transfer using a x10 hand lens of the type used by antique dealers. Trying to use an immature male with a too freshly emerged female invariably results in failure. There's a reason why most males emerge a week or so before the females.
Tuts wrote:
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Additionally one character, who i have bumped into at Alice regularly appears at 'insect fairs' selling PE larvae labled as 'from british stock' which presumably have come from wild individuals.
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Almost certainly the same chap who wrote to me over thirty years ago when he was a student asking about my technique for obtaining successful pairings of the Apaturinae in captivity. I do not know if he was able to succeed with what I told him but, he did manage it eventually.
Anyone collecting wild specimens for sale later would have to work extremely hard, spend much time not to mention use lots of fuel to make it worthwhile. I do not think it can be done. Try it, be amazed if you find it profitable and you will soon give up ...
With good husbandry throughout the year in captivity from the egg to the successful pairing ~ twelve months dedication ~ a healthy female can lay probably in excess of 200 ova. Almost certainly that many are laid in the wild by a healthy female too. How many of those wild laid ova produce adults twelve months later? Two or three if they're lucky. In captivity, 200 ova can be 200 adults. Huge amount of time and TLC required though ... for years.
In winter, I have visited areas in the woodlands where I've seen females laying the previous summer. During those visits, large flocks of insectivorous feeding birds systematically work their way through the bare shrubs and trees seeking something to feed on. Maybe a dozen different flocks of birds each day throughout the larva's months of hibernation. Larvae survival in late summer-autumn is from my observations quite high. Most insect feeding birds have reared their young by that time so do not collect the 1000s of small moth and butterfly larvae to sustain their broods. I strongly suspect, that is where most of those 200 wild hibernating individuals end up... in the hungry stomachs of small birds during the hard winter months. Otherwise we'd be up to our necks in Purple Emperors ... now there's a thought ..
It is possible to see a Purple Emperor any day of the year. If you know where to look.
EDIT to add :~
For the benefit of those sufficiently interested and those doubters I'm adding an image of a captive pairing of Apatura iris ~ The Purple Emperor.
Although I have been to Alice Holt many times years ago, I have never taken a single specimen from that locality. I did kill one though, a female of the largest Horse Fly we have in the former much more greener and pleasant which fancied some of my red stuff...
Those Apatura iris could not have come from anywhere farther away from Alice Holt as is possible. They are from the eastern range extremity of this very widespread and common butterfly in the world. They are the South Korean race
A. iris. insularis almost identical to our butterfly except fresh specimens sometimes have a very noticeable and beautiful mauve or violet sheen on the undersides of the hind wings. I bred several generations of this butterfly back in the 1980s along with a dozen plus species of Apaturinae including our own single representative of this fabulous butterfly family. Here are a paired couple of the South Korean species Apatura ( Chitoris ) ulupi which has the Celtis ( Ulmacae ) as their larval foodplant.
As can be seen from this picture, the sexes are strongly sexually dimorphic. All the males I bred were of the form which resembles loosely the Gulf Fritillary at first glance. Never seen or bred one but was informed by Oriental contacts that another male form exists with colouring not unlike our own UK representative. All the females on the upperside resemble our butterfly but, as can be seen, the underside colouring is very different but the pattern is similar.
The earlier stages are colonial prior to hibernation. Here are some ova and young larvae on one of my potted Celtis.
The above fully grown larva and pupa is an example of a second brood. A rare event which also happens with our butterfly. Over the years breeding various butterflies, I'm convinced several univoltine species produce the occasional second brood individual as part of the natural variation and selection process. It may happen in the wild too as my captive rearing closely follows wild conditions except predators are excluded.
Anyone contemplating breeding these more demanding species should be aware of the total care, devotion and attention required 24/7/365. Including 3am inspections and checks for and predators which appear at any time, usually at night. To see a large spider trying to penetrate netting with it's fangs to reach a suspended pupa is always a nasty thing to observe, particularly if it is successful .. 'appens..
The logistics required to handle large number throughout the year is considerable. Summer holidays and even the occasional field trips are out when your attention is needed elsewhere with the livestock :~
Finally, reading many of the posts here on UKB, there appears to be a hardcore of enthusiasts who bad mouth or at least view poorly anything that smacks of the dreaded word ... "Collecting" ...
Less than one hundred years ago. Just about every household had a cabinet or display case with wild specimens on display, all obtained either by gun, trap or nets. Even during the late 1940s and early 1950s as a small boy I was encouraged by my elders and schoolmasters to get a net and get out their in a healthy pursuit. Even the late great Peter Scott who shot more wildfowl than most ever had, set up a Nature Reserve at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. Even the late I.R.P Heslop of "notes and Views of .. " had more wild caught specimens of the Purple Emperor in his collection than most see in their lifetime. However, he was instrumental in setting up a reserve within the Bentley Woods complex for this butterfly. My observations over the past fifty years of the management operations of that woodland indicates that without that reserve, that fine butterfly may not be there today.
Had it not been for those old collectors and the specimens they passed on to museums when they passed on, we would have no idea what a genuine Cotswold Large Blue looks like. Those successful introductions in the west country locations are all fine and very interesting but, they will never be the real McCoy to the purist in me.
Hands up all those who believe the reason indigenous Large Blues no longer fly in their numerous Cotswold haunts was all the doing of collectors...
Hmmmm ... that many... no bluddy wonder.
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P.S. All the above pictures are digital images of 6" x 4" prints taken with a small compact digital camera. No such technology available back in those distant days. What a boon it would have been had it been ...
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