The mystery hawthorn micro pupates

Update on Project 37A (mystery hawthorn micro U#266)

Transparency of the pupa in its cocoon, 19 May

It's even more of a mystery now...

Last update, I said the larva was still in old decaying leaves. It's possible that by that time it had already moved on, as I discovered on 16 May that it had eaten some of the fresh leaves and was now in a spinning between a fresh leaf and the bottom of the container, ready to pupate!

Then, looking closely at it this morning, I realised it had pupated, as the old larval skin was deposited outside the rear end of the cocoon. That was the only clue that it had pupated - I was expecting it to go brown like the mystery hazel micro U#267 (which I think is an Epiblema/Notocelia tortrix) but it just remained pale. The cocoon is also quite different than the tight capsule-like leaf spinning that the hazel micro pupated in. So I'm thinking it's probably not a tortrix.

But we'll find out.

Update on Project 38A (mystery hazel tortrix U#267)

And speaking of the mystery hazel tortrix, I decided to transfer the pupa to a folded piece of damp Kleenex this morning because the leaves really had gone mouldy. And once I'd got started, I realised some of the other pupae could benefit with some damp tissue as well - so in went the leaves bearing the Lozotaenias and the mystery hawthorn pupa too.

So here are the four jars in which the six pupae of my current rearing projects now reside: two Lozotaenia forsterana, a Brimstone Moth, an Angle Shades (in the jar with soil), and the two mystery micro pupae. Exciting times!