Breeding: Agriades aquilo

[wolf]

The breeding efforts has been a bit slow this year. But here i present Agriades aquilo. This is another species that only fly in North Norway. I caught a female last year that laid a few eggs. I ended up with 15 hibernating larva, of which ALL survived the hibernation! To my frustration all but one larva re-entered hibernation after just 3-4 days of eating! The one larva hatched as a male. The rest will have to wait another year(hopefully they survive the second hibernation).
They use Saxifraga oppositifolia and Saxifraga aizoides as hostplant. I used the latter in my breeding.
The eggs used 6-7 days to hatch. The larva hibernated in L3. I took them out of hibernation the 29th of May. One larva pupated after 12 days, molting only once after hibernation. Pupal stage lasted 7 days. A male hatched the 16th of June.
Enjoy!

Hostplant


Egg


L1



L2



L3



L4




Pupa



Imago

[adamcotton]

To my frustration all but one larva re-entered hibernation after just 3-4 days of eating!

Very strange. How did you know that they had re-entered hibernation?

Adam.

[wolf]

The larva just simply stopped eating and found themselves a spot on the hostplant and kept completely still for the duration the other larva finished the lifecycle. It is in my experience typical hibernation behaviour. They are still alive and doing well in my fridge so far