Weird Butterflies/Moths - Albinos, Leucism, Melanism, Gynanders, etc.

[billgarthe]

My Morpho rhetenor……

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Antheraea polyphemus gynandromorph caught by me on mountain top at blacklights
and
Antheraea polyphemus dark form….reared

[Trehopr1]

Very good to see you once again Billg !

Hope we see more of you in the future....

Those are some terrific specimens.

[adamcotton]

Very good to see you once again Billg !

I will second that BIGTIME ... welcome back!

Adam.

[adamcotton]

Adam, I am quite sure that the butterfly was exposed to UV light. Parts of the forewings were covered so that the green colour remained.

That's what I thought too. I really do not like artificially induced aberrations (aka. fakes), whatever method is used.

Adam.

[boghaunter1]

Beautiful Ab. Attacus atlas,

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John K.

[boghaunter1]

Gynander Spanish Moon moth - Graellsia isabellae

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A. luna x G. isabellae hybrid

[boghaunter1]

Very unusual butterfly - looks like a colorful, fuzzy little plush toy...

Anteros renaldo from Columbia

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'

Papilio macki hybrid - Japan

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John K.

[boghaunter1]

Bred ab. forms of Arctia caja - Incredible!

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John K.

[wolf]

Colias hecla sulitelma female ab from my breeding in 2021.

[daveuk]

Pink pierids.
A pair of pink Pieris brassicae with a typical pair. The pink male is also abb. minor.
A female pink Pieris rapae with a typical female.
Have posted pictures of these before. All bred specimens purchased by myself. I still have no idea how the pink colouration is produced

[bobw]

Pink pierids.
A pair of pink Pieris brassicae with a typical pair. The pink male is also abb. minor.
A female pink Pieris rapae with a typical female.
Have posted pictures of these before. All bred specimens purchased by myself. I still have no idea how the pink colouration is produced

These pink Pieris have been discussed here (or maybe the other forum) before, many of them were sold as pupae. I had a stand adjacent to the guy selling them at the AES show many years ago. My colleague was a research scientist specialising in foodstuffs, and when he started talking to the guy at a fairly technical level he seemed to understand eveything. The consensus was that they were almost certainly produced by dye in the larval foodplant, possibly based on beetroot.

[boghaunter1]

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) ab. "hygiaea" (interesting variations) - Following are 7 examples of this rare ab. that I collected, in the wild, a number of years ago, & were originally posted on Clark's "insectnet" site. These are now artificially reproduced by chilling the chrysalises, but wild collected specimens are still quite rare. As far as I know these are the only known specimens from Saskatchewan, CANADA. I would love to hear (& please show us here) of other wild collected (ONLY!) examples from N. Am.. These specimens are labeled from #1-7; #1 & #2 were collected the same day in early August; #3-7 were collected, in very late August, 3 years later, on 2 consecutive days, & on the same 7-8 mile stretch of backroad !

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2. (Medium).JPG (81.71 KiB) Viewed 206 times

John K.

[boghaunter1]

#3 & #4,

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John K.

[boghaunter1]

#5 & #6,

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John K.

[boghaunter1]

Here is a nearly identical "hygiaea" variation, to my #6 example above, that I believe was also posted to my original specimens post years ago. It was from Nobles County, Minnesota - 14 July, 1986.

Aberrant N. antiopa Nobles County, Minnesota, July 14, 1986.jpg (27.01 KiB) Viewed 199 times

John K.

[Chuck]

These specimens are labeled from #1-7; #1 & #2 were collected the same day in early August; #3-7 were collected, in very late August, 3 years later, on 2 consecutive days, & on the same 7-8 mile stretch of backroad !


John K.

Well if Papilio glaucus can sustain morphological changes due to genetic alteration from the environment, and these changes are inheritable, I'd think the same would be quite possible with other Leps. That would explain the temporal difference in the same location.

I'd go back and look for more.

[boghaunter1]

Almost forgot my #7,

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John K.

[Trehopr1]

Those are pretty awesome (natural) abbs. that you have managed John. I've never seen anything like them naturally occurring.

Mighty special finds indeed....

[daveuk]

Almost forgot my #7,
John K.

Thanks for sharing those John. Really beautiful abberations.All of them !!

[boghaunter1]

Additional Truly Spectacular Collection of Arctia caja bred forms from online 10 yrs. ago -I-

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John K.