Do Saturniidae have a mouth? A need for a clarification Yes! Adult Saturniidae moths have mouth parts but they are underdeveloped and non functional. Although they are not being used anymore, their development is deeply coded into the DNA, thus very difficult to be removed or rearranged so quickly. Useless structures, such as the Saturniidae…
Lepidoptera Breeding and Rearing: Introduction Welcome to this section created to provide informations on Lepidoptera. TTB is dedicated to Lepidoptera breeding, focusing on Saturniidae and Sphingidae families. This section wants to provide a mixture of insect care informations and basic material related to insect biology. This section is still incomplete, many small articles are on-going!…
Eggs and Pupae Care in Butterflies and Moths Eggs: Lepidoptera eggs show a great variability in shape and color. The egg contains the embryo that hatches fully functional. The larval period is called post-embryonic development. Eggs are usually rounded, from 0,1cm to 0,3cm in diameter. The duration of embryo development is strongly affected by temperature,…
Larvae Care Lepidoptera larval stages are called caterpillars. They hatch from the egg laid by the adult and develop into a pupae, that undergoes metamorphosis. The word larvae, not neanidae or others, is used because Lepidoptera are holometabolous insects. Such insects undergo a complete metamorphosis: the juvenile stages is really different from the adult (ex….
Adult Care General considerations on adult Lepidoptera Lepidoptera adult stage, which is the final outcome of metamorphosis, consists in the butterfly or the moth. The adult stage is also called imago. This stage has lost the capability to increase in size, task which is completely committed to the larval stages. Even if many adult Lepidoptera…