Rearing: Angle Shades (Project 3B)

The focus of this blog is twofold I suppose: recording moths and rearing moths. I've got off to a good start with the recording side - so now time I think to do my first proper post about one of my current rearing projects.

I already introduced it in "The story so far" - this is my second Angle Shades caterpillar (Phlogophora meticulosa), which is of course the Moth Of The Blog...

28 MAR 2013 | ON VEGETATION | AT HOME GARDEN, SPRINGMARTIN HVC39 J3074

Angle Shades: 1L (Ye) (GYe)

Angle Shades caterpillar on rose

This is the third Angle Shades caterpillar I've found in my garden - it's a common migrant Noctuid moth. I reared the first one I found (in 2010, on the exact same plant), and I'm doing the same with this one. At the minute it's under a half-eaten rose leaf in a cottage cheese carton on my bedroom windowsill, in the process of moulting its skin. That'll bring it to its penultimate or maybe third-last instar.

Update on Project 3B

I took the caterpillar indoors the following day, by which time it had moved up the plant to a spray of leaves precariously flapping in the breeze:

Angle Shades caterpillar on rose, 29 March 2013

On the windowsill in its cottage cheese carton, it grew and ate quite quickly, as caterpillars do...

Indoors, 29 March

1 April

2 April

Just over a week later, it moulted onto its final instar (jargon buster: caterpillars periodically moult their skin; the periods between moults are the instars)...

Moulted head case, 5 April

It took me a while to remember my tactic with the previous Angle Shades caterpillar (Rosebud, the blog icon) of feeding it elder leaves, to spare mum's roses...!

Nearly full grown, 9 April

On 14 April I found it, with its velvety patterned complexion changed to a plain shiny yellow-green, spinning a loose cocoon of silk and chewed-up leaves in the bottom of the container. Angle Shades number one had done this and pupated and emerged successfully, but I suspected that, like other Noctuid caterpillars, it would much rather prefer some soil.

Turning yellowish as it prepares to pupate, 14 April

So I provided some, and it dove right in!

Diving straight into the earth, 14 April

And that's the last I saw of it. I moved the jar outside to give it normal conditions for pupation.

Based on how long it took Rosebud to go from spinning its cocoon to emergence (49 days) I'm predicting Angie will emerge around 2 June. So until then, I just have to keep the soil moist and wait.

And wait for the Brimstone pupa to emerge. And take care of James's two Lozotaenias. I got some good photos of the older Lozzy today - and a video clip - but that's another post for another day!