Euphydryas anicia wheeleri
Photo Life History: Euphydryas anicia wheeleri
Habitat: Mountain Canyons; Pinyon Juniper; Utah's West Desert Mountain Ranges. (Populations of this butterfly can be found in the Great Basin.)
Host Plants: Castilleja chromosa; Penstemon eatonii; Penstemon humilus
Suitable Lab Host Plants: Most any species of paintbrush (Castilleja) or Penstemon.
Caring for Live Female Butterflies: Feed females regularly.
Methods of Female Oviposition: Portable Cages.
How to Find Eggs: Females lay eggs in large clutches on host plants. Look on the ventral side of leaves towards the lower portion of the host plant.
How to Hatch Eggs: Consolidate eggs into one container.
How to Find Caterpillars in the Field: To find gregarious pre-diapause larvae, look for webbing (almost like a spider web) on the plant. Post-diapause larvae can be found either resting at the base of the host, off the plant altogether, or feeding on host plant flowers or leaves . Keep in mind that once you find one post-diapause larva, start looking closer in that general area as post-diapause larvae disperse roughly within 100 feet (or so) from where the pre-diapause larvae fed. Euphydryas anicia larvae can begin feeding on its host plants as soon as the host breaks ground in the spring.
Caterpillar setups: For pre-diapause larvae, I recommend using the open terrariums or open bucket technique. Overcrowding is not generally an issue since larvae are gregarious in nature. For lab rearing in the late spring, I like finding Penstemon eatonii plants that have already flowered and have cupped leaves. I place cut-out clutches of eggs on the leaves of Penstemon cuttings of these plants and let the eggs hatch and set up a webbed nest/feeding station right on the plant. (Handling hatchling first instar larvae is not necessary.) For post-diapause larvae, see Post-Hibernation Strategies below.
Larva to Pupa: Caterpillar silks to leaf or twig; creates and attaches cremaster; hanging as a J before pupating.
Number of Broods per Year: 1
Overwintering Stage: Third or Fourth Instar Larva.
Overwintering Strategies: Your Own Backyard.
Post-Hibernation Strategies: When you feed post-diapause larvae after overwintering, if you're only rearing a few caterpillars, I highly recommend isolating caterpillars from sibling caterpillars using the twin cup method (or similar) in order to avoid re-diapause--an extremely common situation with checkerspots. (See this video for more information on the twin cup method.) Jacque Wolfe recommends exposing post-diapause larvae to cold overnight temperatures.
Avoiding Diapause Techniques: Not applicable.
Disease Prevention: For post-diapause larvase, change out host plant and remove frass every two to three days using the twin cup method.
Emergence: Emergence Container
Field Notes:
