Posts related to conservation: of biology, ethics, groups, mindsets, and movements.
Last Saturday was a sad day for us. One unexpected development with a malformed chrysalis led to mistakes that could have caused the loss of up to all six chrysalises we had at the time if I had done things in a different order and/or way.
This is the chrysalis that suffered a fall a few days ago that I had not yet reported happening because that day was sad for a few reasons, and I’ve been waiting to post an update that would have at least one bright spot from that day. Continue reading “Guardianship update: 21st August 2018”
I’m a dummy. Not going to post for a while because in the time it took me download four pics, resize them and make my last post, this happened…
I fretted a lot overnight. I kept checking the monarch disease pages, dismissed OE and pondered “black death” after one older site pic I found that had a pure black chrysalis. Nope…nope…behold!
What a difference! Continue reading “Guardianship update: 16th August 2018 #2”
This week has been all sorts of lessons. The chrysalis I first noticed the faintest bits of orange through the green is still developing, but sometime in the last six hours, two nearby rapidly changed to the image below, which is the best shot I could manage at this hour.
Two firsts today: I happened to catch a J transforming into chrysalis. If I had strolled by sooner, I might not have realized it was that far along if not for the visually striking difference between larvae skin and sudden bulge of light green. Also, this happened…
We had a fake out. One of the 5th instar was on the screen lid on the side where all the chrysalises are. Later, I thought it fell, but it was happily munching on a leaf. I don’t know how folks keep track of greater numbers.
The temperature took a nosedive today, and it’s cool enough that I’m in jeans and a sweatshirt quite comfortably (My low blood pressure is helping that). The cool damp in the air instead of the humidly stifling feeling is quite a change! I’m wondering how much difference this will make for the larvae growth rate, as the forecast is predicting this will be the norm for a few more days until the temps start to hit low 80s F again. Continue reading “Guardianship update: 12th August 2018”
So much to my surprise, and with a twinge of guilt, at late suppertime yesterday (which was the 10th for folks pondering the time difference), I saw Junior poised in preparation for J already. Since the four older instar had been out of the incubator for a while, I really didn’t realize how big Junior had grown, especially since the last to form a chrysalis was the biggest 5th instar (and bigger than Junior). Continue reading “Guardianship update: 11th August 2018”
