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Manduca quinquemaculata pupation and eclosion

I want to study the behavior of Manduca quinquemaculata at different temperatures and compare this with another moth species.

Now, i got a few pupae and want to make sure they survive. At the moment i have them at 77°F and 50% humidity. Are these appropriate conditions to break the diapause and ensure survival? Should i have long day conditions, e.g. 15hours of light to simulate spring/summer season? Or should i just perform as it is necessary for the Manduca sexta? Already one pupae leaked some fluid, few others are a bit shriveled and very dark (almost black), but most of them still look nice dark brownish and are in shape. I have not been able to find precise information about the tomato hornworm and pupal stage. Any comments will be very much appreciated.

Manduca quinquemaculata eggs for Science
Dear insect fans,
i got the pupae from the semi desert in Utah near Salt Lake city. The larvae were pupating and soon after they were shipped via air mail to our institute in Germany, http://www.ice.mpg.de/main/home/home_en.htm. Each day i check for the pupae more of them become shriveled and soft. Could it be that the strong humidity change, 2% in Utah and 30%-50% in our growth chamber, is the cause for this dying of our pupae? As far as i know, it has been a very elusive task to establish a continuous breeding of the tomato hornworm. However, we want to answer a few questions about insect physiology and performance and we need the larvae of this species.

Now my request: Is there somebody who could promote our scientific effort and provide us with eggs of Manduca quinquemaculata? If there are questions about the seriousness of this request; please check the web page mentioned above, our institute profile. For delivery, the institute's FEDex number will be provided, no payment for the shipper, and a notification will be send for the German customs to forward those eggs.

If there is somebody who is willing to help, please answer this comment or emial to hwuensche@ice.mpg.de

Greetings

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