e-log: Studying Life cycle of insects

aim: studying developmental stages of butterfly.

date of collection: 10 October 

location: Warangal

leaf: hibiscus leaf

name of data collector: Deekshith

Progress

eggs collected: 10th october

larval stage (eggs hatched): 13th october (3 days)

Pupa Stage: -

Adult Stage: -

October 10 2024

today I was on terrace to pluck some hibiscus leaves. found some eggs on the back side of a leaf (103 eggs in total). the next thought that crossed my mind after seeing those eggs is these have to be butterfly eggs. they do look similar to butterfly eggs but can't be sure until they develop into one. lets hope they are butterfly eggs.

then I visited a nearby shop to get an empty plastic candy box. I cut two holes for ventilation. put the petiole of leaf in an aloevera gel graft to prevent it from wilting. I put the leaf with the aloevera and a wet cloth(to maintain the humidity of the air inside the box) in the box. now I put the lid back. put the entire box in an empty, sturdy carboard box so that the almost empty plastic box won't fly off due to wind and to give some mechanical support.

looked up on google but couldn't find any specific butterfly species being associated with hibiscus leaves but

Butterflies choose leaves to lay their eggs on using a combination of visual cues and chemical senses: 

• Visual cues: Butterflies use visual cues to locate the host plant. 
• Contact chemosensation: After landing on a leaf, butterflies use their feet to sense the leaf's taste to determine if it's suitable. 
• Leaf position: Most butterflies lay their eggs on the underside of a leaf. This puts the eggs close to food for the caterpillars that hatch from them. 
• Plant health: Butterflies choose healthy plants with enough leaves for the caterpillars to eat. 
• Once a butterfly has chosen a leaf, it will lay its egg by drumming the leaf with its forelegs, curling its abdomen, and laying the egg.

Insect eggs on hibiscus leaf

october 11 2024

today i bought a magnifying glass to observe eggs and upcoming developmental stages.

eggs -> larva(caterpillars in this case) -> pupa -> adult

I observed small black dots in some the eggs and some of them turned a little reddish color. expecting them to hatch in 3 days as insect's eggs hatch in 3-8 days from the day they are laid. replaced the aloevera graft as the gel shrunk in size.

Hibiscus Plant from where I collected leaf with eggs

black dots showing the development of eggs into larvae

CUBE Homelab setup for observing and sheltering eggs and future developmental stages

october 12 2024

observed a bit large black dots in almost all eggs. sign that eggs are developing into larvae.

some eggs turned a bit reddish color

october 13 2024

eggs hatched and caterpillars(1st instar caterpillars) came out. yayy!! as expected they hatched in 3 days. almost all eggs are showing black dots visible to naked eye. a few (about 4 eggs) turned into greenish color.(can we expect them to become different colored butterflies from the rest of them?)

observed movement in caterpillars.

morpholoagical features of caterpillars: black head, white body. multiple legs.

fresh leaves as food for the hatchlings

4 eggs hatched into larvae (caterpillars)  10:00 AM

Cube Homelab Warangal telangana

cube homelab warangal to study lifecycle of insects.

tools used:

• cutter
• tape
• marker
• cardboard 
• empty plastic box

a bigger box to accomodate about 100 larvae

As there are 103 eggs in total and almost all eggs seem viable as they are showing signs of development into larval stages, I decided to build a bigger box to accomodate all of them. Im planning to release a few of them into a nearby garden if they are in lage number and become impossible to manage them at home.

about 14 larvae 3:00 PM

Update: 3:00 PM afternoon. I checked them again and found almost 14 larvae. few of them migrated to new leaves in search of food(probably).

October 14 2024

most of the larvae are inactive and leaf is starting to wilt. added few more fresh leaves to the box.

14th October 9:00 AM

October 15 2024

total larvae seen 10. 

5 are long out of which 3 are showing active movement and 2 are still and remaining 5 are short and all of them are still and are not showing any movement.
there are small black dots near long larvae(expected to be excreta of the larvae) and perforation of leaf is also observed near long larvae(indicative of larvae feeding on leaf). I added some fresh hibiscus leaves and 2 spinach leaves.

perforated leaf indicative of lavae feeding on leaf

long larvae along with black excreta

short larvae with no movement

Video of moving Larvae

October 16 2024

yesterday I added 2 spinach leaves. today's observation was 3 larvae migrated onto spinach leaf and 2 larvae were found on hibiscus leaf. initially inactive larvae showed movement when I tried to observe them under sunlight. can be an indication of phototaxis or something similar to melatonin in humans waking up larvae to go find its food? caterpillars have stemmata(simple eyes) capable of photoreception. this can be accredited to its movement in sunlight.

eggs show no visible development so far. I can still see black dots but they didn't hatch yet. some little larvae are not moving(I think they are not alive). lets hope for the best. presently I can observe 5 long larvae showing movement and consumption of food(leaves).

I observed larvae have 5 pairs of fleshy legs. this confirms the larvae are caterpillars taking their morphology and movement into consideration.

5 pairs of fleshy legs

reference chart from https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef017

3 larvae on spinach leaf

Videos showing movement, hairy dorsal surface and 5 pairs of fleshy legs:

October 17 2024

Today I observed crawling and inching movement of the larvae. The larvae are moving faster than before(or is it an illusion as they grew double in size).
I added some more fresh leaves to the box.

October 18 2024

found only 3 caterpillars. one in the spinach dried leaf was not alive :(
one was curled up on hibiscus leaf.

caterpillar

October 19 2024

hello from caterpillars 

I am thinking of transferring them to host plant by tomorrow as Im unable to keep track of larvae(some went missing. I think they crawled out of box) and I couldn't keep all of them alive :(

Caterpillar

October 20 2024

observed these white strings on numerous leaves. these strings help larvae to anchor themselves to the leaf while they can relax and concentrate on eating leaves.

observed a caterpillar curled into a hairy ball.(could not see clearly but it looked like it curled into a hairy ball)

Caterpillar curled into a hairy ball

Caterpillar curled into a hairy ball

White strings on leaf

Caterpillar curled into a hairy ball

October 21 2024

it was an amazing 10 days experience watching caterpillars grow from eggs. but I couldn't keep track of them well and lost few caterpillars. I transfered the remaining caterpillars to the host plant.

This marks the end of the e-log. Thank you for reading the complete article.